PANAMA 

-AND -THE- 

CANAL- 


SANTA  MARIA." — ONE  OF  THE  SHIPS  OF  COLUMBUS. 
(From  an  exact  reproduction  built  in  1892.) 


PANAMA 

AND     THE     CANAL 


Alfred  B    PJall  ^    i^S"- 

Instructor  in  History  in  The  Hotchkiss  School,  Lakeville,  Conn. 

and 

Clarence  C!   Chester 

Traveler  and  Explorer 


NEW     YORK 

NEWSON    &    COMPANY 
CC\VO  A 


Copyright,    1910,   by 
NEWSON    &    COMPANY 


1221 


Bancroft  Library 


INTRODUCTION 

"Castilla   del    Oro  " — Golden   Castile — was   the   name 

Q  given  by  Columbus  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  in  honor 

!f  of  Isabella,  good  queen  of  the  old  Spanish  kingdom  of 

"  Castile.     Golden,  indeed,  it  was  to  be,  a  land  of  treasure 

0  far  beyond  the  dreams  of  the  Great  Discoverer.     "Grave 

~  of  the  Spaniards" — the  pioneers  called  it,  who  fought  to 

.    win  the  treasure  from  savage  Indians,  cruel  pirates,  and 

g    a  deadly  climate.     "Key  to  the  Pacific" — some,  too,  have 

O     named  it     As  if,  when  Nature  raised  the  broad  continents 

CT     of  North  and  South  America  between  the  Atlantic  and  the 

^j     Pacific,   she  originally  planned  a  waterway  at  this  con- 

^      venient  spot  to  connect  the  two  oceans.     And  then,  as  an 

£      after-thought,  threw  in  this  bit  of  land,  at  its  narrowest  point 

scarcely  thirty  miles  wide,  and  with  its  hills  at  one  place 

only  three  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  as  a  challenge  to  the 

strength  and  skill  of  mankind. 

Four  hundred  years  ago  men  accepted  the  challenge.  First 
Spain,  then  Scotland,  England,  and  France  poured  out 
money  and  life  in  a  vain  effort  to  build  a  waterway  and 
to  defeat  the  powers  of  Nature.  Last  of  all,  the  United 
States,  led  by  a  dauntless  President,  took  up  the  fight. 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

"This  is  the  greatest  engineering  work  the  world  has  yet 
seen,'7  said  President  Roosevelt,  "but  the  Canal  shall  be 
built!'7 

These  names  tell  in  short  the  story  of  the  Isthmus.  In 
all  the  Western  Hemisphere  no  spot  has  had  so  romantic 
a  history  as  this  small  strip  of  land  that  joins  the  two 
continents  but  separates  the  two  greatest  oceans  of  the 
world. 


PEEFACE 

In  this  little  book  the  authors  have  attempted  to  present 
the  history  of  Panama  and  of  the  Panama  Canal  in  a  man- 
ner which  will  be  interesting  and  intelligible  to  younger 
readers.  As  a  possession  of  the  United  States  the  Canal 
Zone  deserves  attention  from  teachers  of  geography  and 
history.  The  state  of  Panama  itself  has  had  a  most  dra- 
matic and  thrilling  history.  And  the  Canal  is  not  only  a 
wonder  of  modern  engineering  but  is  also  an  American 
achievement  of  first  importance.  The  story  is  full  of 
important  facts  in  history  and  geography  and  presents  a 
fund  of  information  of  a  distinctly  educational  character. 

For  the  early  historical  matter  the  authors  have  drawn 
freely  upon  such  material  as  is  found  in  Fiske's  Discovery 
of  America  and  in  a  large  number  of  books  of  a  similar 
character.  Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Isthmian  Canal 
Commission,  many  records  and  pictures  have  been  secured. 
These  have  been  supplemented  by  photographs  taken  on 
the  Isthmus  and  by  personal  observation  and  study  in  the 
Canal  Zone. 

DECEMBER,  1909. 


vii 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION v 

PART  I.— GOLDEN   CASTILE 

CHAPTER 

I.    A  ROUTE  FROM  EUROPE  TO  ASIA 3 

II.    BALBOA  AND  THE  PACIFIC 12 

III.  PlZARRO  AND   THE    GOLD   OF   PERU 19 

PART  II.— GRAVE   OF  THE   SPANIARDS 

IV.  THE  PIRATES 27 

PART  III.— MODERN  PANAMA 

V.    LAND  OF  THE  COCOANUT  TREE 41 

VI.    NATIVES  AND  ANIMALS     ....  ....  58 

VII.     CITY  OF  PANAMA 78 

PART  IV.— KEY  TO  THE  PACIFIC 

VIII.  ROADWAYS  ACROSS  CENTRAL  AMERICA 93 

IX.  WATERWAYS  ACROSS  CENTRAL  AMERICA 108 

X.  THE  FRENCH  AT  PANAMA .  .113 

XI.  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  PANAMA  .  .  .  .  .  .128 

XII.  CONQUEST  OF  DISEASE 137 

XIII.  ASSEMBLING  A  WORKING  FORCE 156 

XIV.  MACHINERY  AND  THE  PANAMA  RAILROAD 170 

XV.  SEA-LEVEL  AND  LOCK  CANALS 177 

XVI.  THE  LOCK  CANAL  AT  PANAMA 186 

XVII.  BUILDING  THE  CANAL 194 

XVIII.  THE  MEN  BEHIND  THE  CANAL 218 

XIX.  FUTURE  OF  PANAMA  AND  THE  CANAL         .       .       .       .       .223 


PART  I 
GOLDEN  CASTILE 


MAP  I.— "THE  PORTUGUESE  FIND  A  ROUTE  TO  ASIA.' 


CHAPTER  I 

A  ROUTE  FROM  EUROPE  TO  ASIA 

Every  schoolboy  today  knows  more  of  geography  than 
the  most  learned  man  in  Europe  knew  five  hundred  years 
ago.  When  Columbus  was  puzzling  over  his 

The 

Latin  books  and  learning  to  draw  maps  in  the     Portuguese 
schools  of  Genoa,  Italv,  no  teacher  could  have     f in*  a  Route 

*  t/O  ASlcl 

told  him  the  real  size  and  shape  of  the  earth. 
A  few  persons  believed  that  the  earth  was  round  like  a 
globe  but  thought  it  much  smaller  than  we  now  know  it 
to  be.  The  maps  of  that  day  marked  with  certainty  only 
the  continent  of  Europe,  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  a  little 
of  the  north  of  Africa,  and  some  of  the  western  parts  of 
Asia.  What  the  remainder  of  Asia  and  Africa  was  like, 
no  one  could  say.  West  of  Europe  was  the  Atlantic  ocean, 
called  the  Sea  of  Darkness.  No  European  ship  was  ever 
known  to  have  crossed  it.  It  was  an  ocean  of  unknown 
dangers.  Sailors  were  afraid  to  try  it.  And  as  for  North 
and  South  America  and  the  Pacific  ocean,  stretching  ten 
thousand  miles  beyond  them,  there  was  not  the  faintest 
idea  that  they  existed. 

In  those  days,  of  course,  there  were  no  steamships  nor 
railways.  Nor  was  there  any  way  for  even  small  sailing 

3 


WEALTH  OF  ASIA 


vessels  to  pass  from  the  Mediterranean  into  the  Indian 
ocean  and  so  direct  to  India,  China,  and  Japan.  The 
journey  to  the  East  was  difficult  and  dangerous.  Pirates, 
Turks,  and  highway  robbers,  and  many  long  miles  through 

unknown  lands  frightened 
the  boldest  traveler.  And 
yet  there  were  a  few,  per- 
haps not  over  half  a  dozen, 
who  had  visited  China  and 
India,  and  had  come  back, 
like  Marco  Polo,  with  such 
tales  of  strange  lands  and 
rich  cities,  as  to  fill  Europe 
with  wonder  and  surprise. 

In  the  markets  of  Genoa 
Columbus,  no   doubt,  saw 

the  valuable  drugs  and  spices,  handsome  rugs  and  silks,  and 
the  almost  priceless  gold  and  jewels  which  the  slow  cara- 
vans brought  out  of  Asia  to  the  Mediterranean  and  there 
sold  to  the  traders  from  European  cities.  These  oriental 
goods  were  in  great  demand,  and  the  merchants  in  Venice, 
Genoa,  and  other  towns  made  immense  profits  in  this  trade. 
It  is  not  strange  that  during  the  boyhood  of  Columbus 
men  were  curious  to  know  more  of  the  wondrous  eastern 
coast  of  Asia,  and  were  greedy  for  its  wealth.  If  only  some 
new,  outside  waterway  to  Asia  could  be  found,  its  millions 
of  people  might  be  conquered  and  its  riches  brought  cheaply 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS. 


CAPE  GOOD  HOPE  5 

home  to  Europe.  This  was  the  great  desire.  Merchants 
and  sailors,  soldiers  and  priests,  and  even  kings  and  queens 
hoped  to  share  in  the  gold  and  glory  of  such  a  discovery. 

Twenty  years  before  Columbus  was  born,  Prince  Henry 
of  Portugal,  called  the  Navigator,  made  up  his  mind  that 
if  a  way  around  the  southern  end  of  Africa  could  be  found, 
Portuguese  ships  might  sail  direct  to  India.  For  forty-five 
years  this  generous  and  devoted  man  denied  himself  the 
pleasures  of  the  gay  court  of  Portugal  and  devoted  his  life 
to  the  task  of  discovery.  When  he  died  in  1463  his  daring 
sailors  had  explored  the  west  coast  of  Africa  for  more 
than  two  thousand  miles  to  Sierra  Leone  (Map  I,  p.  2).  For 
years  after  his  death  his  nephew,  King  John  II,  continued 
the  explorations.  In  1487  success  rewarded  these  patient 
efforts.  After  a  most  remarkable  voyage  of  at  least  thir- 
teen thousand  miles,  Bartholomew  Diaz  (De'ath)  returned 
to  Portugal  with  battered  ships  and  worn-out  crews,  and 
reported  that  though  he  had  not  actually  reached  India, 
he  had  passed  the  southern  cape  of  Africa  and  had  sailed 
into  the  Indian  ocean.  "Let  the  cape  be  called  Good 
Hope,"  said  King  John,  "for  now  we  have  good  hope  that 
the  long-sought  ocean  route  to  India  has  been  found." 

We  can  scarcely  imagine  the  interest  which  this  discov- 
ery aroused  in  Europe,  nor  the  envy  with  which  the  other 
kings  looked  upon  this  new  Portuguese  route  and  saw  King 
John  about  to  secure  the  riches  of  Asia  for  himself  and 
his  country. 


6  A  BOLD  PLAN 

Now  it  happened  that  Christopher  Columbus  and  his 

younger  brother  Bartholomew  had  become  not  only  expert 

map  makers  but  also  excellent  seamen.     Co- 

Columbus 

and  the  lumbus  tells  us  that  he  went  to  sea  when  scarcely 


fourteen  years  old.  About  1470  they  left  their 
home  in  Italy,  went  to  Portugal,  and  joined  the 
expeditions  down  the  coast  of  Africa.  In  fact,  Bartholomew 
was  a  seaman  on  the  ships  of  Diaz,  when  the  great  journey 
was  made  around  Cape  Good  Hope.  It  was  now  clear  to 
all  that  the  Portuguese  had  found  a  route  to  Asia  but  that 
it  must  be  at  best  very  long  and  tedious.  Africa  proved 
to  be  much  longer  than  was  expected. 

In  1484  Christopher  Columbus  had  made  the  astonishing 
proposal  to  King  John  that  ships  be  given  him  for  a  voyage 
directly  westward  across  the  Atlantic.  He  declared  that 
if  the  earth  were  really  round,  Asia  could  surely  be  reached 
in  that  way;  and  that  instead  of  a  route  by  Cape  Good 
Hope  of  at  least  ten  thousand  miles,  a  journey  west  of  only 
two  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  as  he  figured  it,  would 
bring  him  to  the  rich  island  of  Japan.  The  idea  was  not 
new,  though  few  believed  in  it;  but  the  courage  to  make 
the  journey  was  new.  King  John  was  struck  with  the 
boldness  of  the  plan,  but  his  advisers  declared  that  it  was 
certain  to  be  a  failure.  The  ships  were  not  given  him, 
and  Columbus  in  disgust  departed  hastily  from  Portugal 
to  offer  himself  and  his  great  idea  to  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella, king  and  queen  of  Spain. 


VOYAGES  OF  COLUMBUS  7 

We  all  know  the  remainder  of  the  story, — eight  long  years 
of  delays,  disappointments,  poverty,  and  ridicule;  the  final 
favorable  decision  of  Queen  Isabella;  and  the  three  little 
ships  that  set  out  from  Palos  on  a  Friday  morning  in 
August  1492,  for  the  most  notable  journey  ever  made  across 
the  seas. 

We  know,  too,  the  intense  excitement  in  Spain  upon  his 
return  with  news  that  he  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  had 
discovered  some  islands  which  he  believed  to  be  close  to 
the  coast  of  Asia.  Honors  were  heaped  upon  him  and 
he  became  the  hero  of  the  hour.  Seventeen  ships  and 
fifteen  hundred  men  at  once  prepared  to  set  out  for  further 
discovery.  Everyone  supposed  that  Spain  had  beaten 
Portugal  in  the  race  for  the  untold  riches  of  Asia.  Now  it 
was  the  turn  of  King  John  to  be  envious.  Alas  for  poor 
Columbus !  Though  he  did  not  know  it,  he  had  not  reached 
Asia  after  all,  only  Haiti  and  Cuba! 

This  second  trip  lasted  many  months  and  proved  most 
disappointing.  The  West  India  Islands  were  explored, 
thousands  of  fierce  cannibal  Indians  encountered,  but  there 
were  no  rich  cities  nor  coasts  of  Asia  nor  ship-loads  of 
wealth  brought  back  to  Spain.  Columbus' s  enemies  now 
began  to  call  him  a  humbug  and  to  plot  his  ruin.  And 
the  king,  too,  began  to  think  that  his  voyages  were  of 
little  value  after  all.  Yet  a  third  voyage  was  made  in 
1497.  At  the  same  time  a  number  of  other  Spanish  cap- 
tains crossed  the  Atlantic  on  similar  voyages  of  discovery. 


BETWEEN  TWO   OCEANS 


MAP  II. — COLUMBUS  AND  THE  ISTHMUS. 


TRIUMPH  OF  DA  GAMA  9 

Hundreds  of  miles  of  the  coasts  of  North  and  South  America 
were  explored.  A  little  gold  was  found  and  some  Indians 
captured  to  be  sold  as  slaves;  but  the  ships  returned  with 
no  " shorter  route"  to  Asia  discovered  and  with  the  sad 
tidings  of  the  horrible  death  of  hundreds  of  Spaniards  at 
the  hands  of  the  fierce  Indians  of  the  West  Indies. 

Imagine,  then,  the  feelings  of  King  Ferdinand  and  of 
Columbus,  when  the  news  came,  in  the  summer  of  1499, 
that  Vasco  da  Gama,  in  the  service  of  King  John,  had 
sailed  around  Africa  by  the  Portuguese  route  and  had 
actually  reached  India,  had  seen  its  rich  cities,  and  brought 
batfk-  his  ships  to  Portugal  loaded  with  silks,  satins,  ivory, 
spices,  rubies,  and  emeralds.  Asia  had  been  reached! 
How  mean  Columbus' s  voyages  now  looked  in  comparison 
with  this  triumph! 

Portugal  had  won  the  race  by  the  longer  African  route. 
No  wonder  that  men  began  to  doubt  the  existence  of  Co- 
lumbus's  "shorter  route."  Not  so  Columbus. 

Columbus 

He  was  now  an  old  man,  poor  and  sick ;  but          and  the 
his  noble  spirit  still  clung  to  the  belief  that 
somewhere,  through  the  new  lands  that  he  had  found,  there 
must  be  a  waterway  that  would  lead  him  on  to  Asia.     Spain 
must  do  something  to  offset  the  triumph  of  Portugal.     So 
it  came  about  that  the  king  and  queen  sent  him  from  Cadiz, 
on  the  nth  of  May,  1502,  on  his  fourth  and  last  voyage. 

In  June  he  reached  the  West  Indies,  and  in  July  the 
Cape  of  Honduras  south  of  Yucatan  (Map  II).  For  five 


io  EVIDENCES  OF  GOLD 

months  he  proceeded  southward  down  the  coast,  encoun- 
tering head  winds  and  wretched  weather,  but  encouraged 
because  he  found  the  Indians  there  living  in  large  stone 
houses,  possessed  of  much  good  pottery  and  copper  tools, 


"THE  BEAUTIFUL  HARBOR  OF  PORTO  BELLO." 

and  well  clothed  in  brightly-colored  cotton  garments.  There 
were  plentiful  evidences  of  gold,  too,  and  many  natives 
were  seen  with  plates  of  gold  suspended  from  their  necks. 
Surely  the  rich  lands  of  Asia  could  not  be  far  away!  On 
down  the  coast  the  vessels  went,  until  they  reached  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama.  Here  the  low  hills,  clothed  with  dense 
tropical  forests,  rose  but  little  above  the  sea.  Each  bay 


NO  WATERWAY  it 

and  river  was  now  carefully  explored,  especially  the  Chagres 
river,  up  which  Columbus  went  to  its  sources,  and  was  at 
one  time  but  fifteen  miles  from  the  Pacific!  The  beautiful 
harbor  of  Porto  Bello  (Good  Harbor)  was  entered  and 
named  on  November  2,  1502.  Still  no  passage  to  the  west 
was  found.  Already  the  sailors  were  grumbling;  the  food 
was  almost  gone;  and  the  vessels  were  worm-eaten 
and  hard  to  manage.  Yet  the  determined  man  pressed  on 
mile  after  mile,  hoping  against  hope.  But  in  December, 
having  passed  along  the  entire  coast  of  Panama,  and 
being  completely  discouraged  at  finding  no  westward  pas- 
sage, he  was  forced  to  turn  about  and  head  for  Cuba.  A 
year  of  shipwreck,  a  sad  return  to  Spain,  two  years  of 
neglect  and  misery  ended  the  life  of  this  great  seaman  in 
1506.  There  was  no  waterway  through  Panama.  The 
Isthmus  had  conquered  the  noblest  of  all  discoverers. 


CHAPTER  II 

BALBOA   AND   THE   PACIFIC 

The  schoolbooks  tell  us  that  the  first  white  man  to  prove 
that  Panama  was  but  a  narrow  strip  of  land  and  that  a 
great  ocean  lay  to  the  west  of  it, — was  the  Spanish  cava- 
lier Balboa.  Perhaps  few  of  us  know  that  this  great  dis- 
coverer set  out  for  Panama  in  a  barrel.  Balboa  in  a 
barrel!  Such  an  amusing  way  of  reaching  the  Isthmus 
deserves  a  word  of  explanation. 

When  the  Spaniards  began  to  doubt  if  they  could  reach 
Asia  by  a  westward  waterway,  they  determined  at  least 
The  s  amards  to  concluer  tne  newly-discovered  lands  and  to 
Settle  in  secure  their  gold.  Ships  began  at  once  to  sail 

to  Panama.  There  they  found  gold  in  plenty 
in  the  sand  of  the  rivers  and  returned  to  Spain  heavily 
loaded.  Within  a  year  King  Ferdinand  created  two  prov- 
inces on  these  coasts — one,  from  the  Atrato  river  eastward 
(Map  II,  p.  8),  was  given  to  the  discoverer  Ojeda  (O-ha'tha) ; 
the  other,  the  Isthmus  of  Panama — called  Golden  Castile- 
was  given  to  a  court  favorite  Nicuesa  (Ne-koo-'asa). 
These  two  governors  set  sail  with  parties  of  settlers  in 
1509. 

On  reaching  the  eastern  shore  of  his  province   Ojeda 


FAMINE  AND  SICKNESS 


rashly  went  ashore  with  seventy  men  to  catch  some  Indians 
for  slaves.    A  fierce  fight  followed  and  all  but  Ojeda  and 
one  companion  were  killed  by  the  savages.     Thus  began 
the    bloody  struggle  with 
the  natives,  which  was  to 
continue    for   many  years 
and    to    end    only    when 
the  latter  were  nearly  de- 
stroyed. 

The  remainder  of  Oje- 
da's  party  had  scarcely 
built  their  miserable  little 
settlement  at  San  Sebas- 
tian (Map  II,  p.  8),  when 
they  began  to  die  of  famine 
and  sickness.  Ojeda  at  once 
left  the  party  in  charge 
of  Francisco  Pizarro  and 
sailed  for  Santo  Domingo 
on  the  island  of  Haiti  for 
supplies.  Now  it  hap- 
pened that  in  Santo  Domingo  there  lived  a  handsome 
young  man  heels  over  head  in  debt,  and  in  terror  lest 
he  be  sent  to  prison.  He  contrived  to  hide  himself  in  a 
barrel  and  was  rolled  on  board  the  ships  that  were  about 
to  set  off  with  food  for  the  starving  men  at  San  Sebastian. 
Days  passed.  And  when  Santo  Domingo  and  his  debts 


VASCO  NUNEZ  DE  BALBOA. 


A  CENTER  OF  WORLD  INTEREST 


MAP  III. — "THE  SPANIARDS  SETTLE  IN  PANAMA. 


NICUESA 


were  left  far  behind,  to  the  disgust  of  the  captain,  out 
crawled  the  gay  Balboa  from  his  barrel.  Surely  his  courage 
deserved  a  better  fate  than  was  in  store  for  him  at  Panama. 

San  Sebastian  was  relieved,  its  survivors  deserted  the 
unhappy  spot,  and  joined 
the  new-comers  to  build  a 
new  town  called  Santa 
Maria.  It  was  the  first  on 
the  Isthmus.  The  ener- 
getic Balboa  soon  became 
the  leader  of  this  settle- 
ment (Map  III). 

Terrible  misfortunes 
also  befell  Nicuesa' s  party. 
They  made  a  landing  on 
the  Isthmus  and  built  a  set- 
tlement which  they  called 
Nombre  de  Dios  (Norn'- 
bra-da-De'os) — Name  of 
God.  In  a  few  months,  of 
seven  hundred  men,  only 
Nicuesa  and  sixty-nine 
others  were  left.  Scarcely 

a  white  settlement  in  all  America  can  show  a  more  dreadful 
record  of  death, — nine  dead  out  of  every  ten.  And  Nicuesa 
with  the  sixty-nine  had  become  "  filthy  and  horrible  to 
behold,"  and  nearly  mad  for  lack  of  food.  At  last,  in  two 


THE  SO-CALLED  BALBOA  TREE.  FROM  ITS 
TOP  BOTH  ATLANTIC  AND  PACIFIC  CAN 
BE  SEEN. 


i6 


MORE  TREASURE 


small  boats,  they  sailed  east  to  Santa  Maria.  There  the 
settlers  were  so  afraid  of  Nicuesa  that  they  would  not  let 
him  land.  With  seventeen  followers  he  set  out  again  to 

sea  and  was  never  heard 
from. 

After  such  awful  suffer- 
ings it  is  surprising  that 
the  few  Spaniards  who  re- 
mained did  not  speedily 
leave  Panama  and  return 
to  Spain.  One  thing  kept 
them  at  Santa  Maria.  A 
nearby  Indian  chief,  by 
name  Comogre,  made 
friends  with  Balboa  and 
gave  him  seventy  slaves 
and  a  large  quantity  of 
gold.  The  story  is  that  as 
the  Spaniards  were  weigh- 
ing the  treasure  and  quar- 
relling as  to  how  it  should  be  divided,  the  Indians  were  as- 
tonished at  their  excitement.  We  know  that  the  natives  used 
their  gold  only  for  ornaments  and  knew  little  of  its  value.  A 
son  of  the  chief  told  Balboa  that  if  the  Spaniards  prized 
the  yellow  metal  so  highly,  they  should  cross  the  mountains 
to  a  great  sea,  where,  far  to  the  south,  people  lived  who  had 
no  end  of  the  precious  metal.  Fired  with  excitement  at  this 


VIEW  OF  ATLANTIC  FROM  BALBOA  TREE. 


THE  GREATEST  OCEAN 


news  of  more  gold,  the  settlers  were  willing  to  remain. 
Balboa  planned  to  cross  the  mountains  and  to  see  for  him- 
self if  a  way  could  not  be  found  to  the  land  of  treasure. 

Some  months  later,  in  September,  1513,  with 
two  hundred  men,  he  plunged  into  the  tropical        ottered 
forest.     On  the  25th  of  that  month,  from  a  high 
point  of  land  on  the  Isthmus,  he  and  his  men  looked  with 
astonishment  at  a  vast  ex- 
panse of  water  stretching 
off  to  the  west  and  south 
as   far   as  eye   could  see. 
Four  days  later,  on  the  2gth, 
having  reached  the  water's 
edge,  Balboa  claimed  pos- 
session,   for    the    king    of 
Spain,  of  the  greatest  ocean 
on  the  globe. 

Eager  to  make  further 
plans,  Balboa  hurried  back 
to  Santa  Maria,  only  to 
find  to  his  dismay  that  fif- 
teen hundred  greedy  ad- 
venturers had  arrived  from 

VIEW  OF  PACIFIC  FROM  BALBOA  TREE. 

Spain, — all  bent  on  shar- 
ing in  the  conquest  of  the  golden  country.     With  this  com- 
pany came  also  a  new  governor  for  the  Isthmus.     This 
man,  Pedrarias,  has  been  called  a  "  two-legged  tiger."     He 


i8  AN  UNTIMELY  END 

was  one  of  the  most  evil  and  brutal  men  ever  sent  by  Spain 
to  the  New  World.  At  once  jealous  of  Balboa,  he  did  all  in 
his  power  to  prevent  his  expedition  to  the  golden  country. 
But  Balboa  pressed  on  his  preparations.  His  energy  was 
amazing.  By  1517  he  had  forced  the  Indians  to  cut  a  road- 
way through  the  dense  jungles  and  to  carry  four  ships,  piece 
by  piece,  across  to  the  Pacific;  had  put  them  together  again; 
and  was  ready  to  sail  down  the  coast  of  South  America. 
Two  thousand  Indians  are  said  to  have  perished  in  this  task. 
But  here  Balboa's  career  was  to  come  to  an  untimely  end. 
The  hatred  of  Pedrarias  could  allow  him  to  go  no  further. 

He  was  arrested,  tried  on  a  false  charge  of  trea- 
Baiboa0f  son>  an(^  beheaded  by  order  of  the  governor. 

So  perished  the  first  white  man  to  cross  Pan- 
ama,— the  Discoverer  of  the  Pacific.  Others  must  find  the 
gdden  country. 


CHAPTER  III 


PIZARRO  AND  THE  GOLD  OF  PERU 

For  the  next  seven  years  the  Spaniards  were  satisfied  to 
secure  the  treasure  that  was  to  be  had  near  at  hand.  In 
1519  Pedrarias  began  to  build  the  city  of  Panama  on  the 
Pacific  and  to  connect  this 
with  the  Atlantic  by  a  road 
across  the  Isthmus,  first  to 
Nombre  de  Dios  and  later 
to  Porto  Bello  (Map  III,  p. 
14).  The  Pearl  Islands  in 
the  Gulf  of  Panama  were 
conquered  and  their  chief 
gave  the  governor  at  one 
time,  we  are  told,  "  a  basket 
full  of  pearls  weighing  one 
hundred  and  ten  pounds, 
—whereof  some  were  as 
big  as  hazelnuts.  One  of 
these  alone  was  later  sold 
for  one  thousand  two  hun- 
dred ducats  (about  $1,500)."  The  Spanish  also  seized 
Nicaragua.  Everywhere  gold  was  forced  from  the  natives 

19   . 


FRANCISCO  PIZARRO. 


20  FRANCISCO  PIZARRO 

by  every  manner  of  fiendish  cruelty  that   men  mad  with 

greed  could  devise.     They  were  made  slaves.     They  died 

by  thousands.     But  now  from  Panama  ships 

Spanish  J 

Treasure  began  to  sail  away  to  Spain  with  heavy  car- 

goes of  treasure  and  many  Spaniards  returned 
in  them  to  swell  the  population  of  Panama. 

But  this  was  only  the  beginning.     In  1524  Francisco  Pi- 
zarro  received  permission  to  take  up  again  the  plans  for  dis- 


DESCENDANTS  OF  THE  INCAS  OF  PERU.    OLD  INCA  MASONRY  IN  BACKGROUND. 

covering  the  golden  kingdom  away  off  to  the  south.  This 
distant  land  the  Spaniards  called  Peru.  It  extended  south 
of  the  equator  for  more  than  a  thousand  miles  down  the 


DISTANT  LAND  OF  PERU 


21 


western  coast  of  South  America,  and  was  the  richest  and 
most  highly  developed  of  any  part  of  the  New  World.  Here 
were  well-built  towns,  with  palaces  and  temples  of  strange 


BRIDGE  STILL  STANDING  ON  THE  OLD  ROAD  FROM  PANAMA  TO  PORTO  BELLO. 

and  splendid  workmanship.  Here  were  fine  roads,  fertile 
fields,  and  millions  of  people.  And  here,  too,  were  mines 
of  gold  and  silver  from  which  the  rulers,  called  Incas  (Ing'- 
kas),  had  gathered  an  almost  unbelievable  store  of  metal. 

We  cannot  here  tell  the  long  and  thrilling 
story  of  the  hardships  suffered  by  Pizarro  and          of°PeruSt 
his  men.     No  -one  can  read  it  without  being 
amazed  by  the  reckless  daring  which  finally  brought  them 
to  the  coast  of  Peru.     Nor  is  this  the  place  for  the  sad  story 


22  THE  GOLDEN  KINGDOM 

of  the  conquest.  Horses  and  bloodhounds  the  natives  had 
never  seen  before  and  were  intensely  afraid  of  them.  Their 
weapons,  too,  were  no  match  for  the  swords  and  firearms  of 
the  Spaniards.  And  so  there  followed  in  Peru  the  same 
greedy  scramble  for  gold  as  at  Panama, — the  same  torture, 
massacre,  treachery,  and  slavery. 

The  enormous  wealth  that  now  fell  into  the  hands  of  Pi- 
zarro's  men  is  difficult  to  estimate.  We  are  told  that  when 
one  of  the  rulers  of  Peru  was  held  prisoner  by  the  Spaniards 
in  a  room  twenty-two  feet  long  by  seventeen  feel  wide,  "he 
made  a  mark  on  the  wall  as  high  as  he  could  reach  with  his 
hand,  and  offered  as  ransom  gold  enough  to  fill  the  room  up 
to  that  height."  The  offer  was  accepted  and  more  than 
$15,000,000  in  gold  was  thus  secured.  Another  ruler  was 
promised  his  freedom  for  a  similar  amount.  After  it  was 
collected,  he  was  treacherously  murdered.  Immense  quan- 
tities of  silver  were  also  secured. 

Here,  indeed,  was  the  Golden  Kingdom  and  Spain  pro- 
ceeded to  make  the  most  of  it.  Peru  and,  in  fact,  the  whole 
west  coast  of  South  America  was  slowly  but  surely  con- 
quered. Spanish  towns  were  built  and  Spanish  authority 
established.  The  natives  were  forced  to  work  the  mines. 
Vast  quantities  of  gold,  silver,  and  tropical  products  were 
shipped  north  to  the  city  of  Panama,  to  cross  the  Isthmus 
to  Porto  Bello,  where  fleets  of  Spanish  ships  came  each  year 
to  convey  them  h®me  to  Spain.  A  fine  stone  road  now  con- 
nected Porto  Bello  and  Panama.  The  two  cities  were 


THE   CITY   ON  THE   ISTHMUS  23 

strongly  fortified,  and  the  latter,  in  particular,  became  one 
of  the  greatest  and  richest  in  America.  The  fortunate  situ- 
ation of  the  city  on  the  Isthmus  made  it  a  most  important 
center  of  Spanish  power.  "It  contained  two  thousand  large 
buildings  and  five  thousand  smaller, — all  of  which  were  three 
stories  high,  and  were  elegantly  constructed  and 
richly  furnished.  Its  merchants  lived  in  great  p^nama^ 
opulence,  their  houses  rich  in  articles  of  gold 
and  silver,  adorned  with  beautiful  paintings  and  other  works 
of  art,  and  full  of  the  luxuries  of  the  age."  "The  pros- 
perity of  Panama  was  the  wonder  and  envy  of  the  world." 

Moreover,  the  wealth  of  America  filled  to  overflowing  the 
treasuries  of  Spain.  Once  a  poor  and  weak  country,  she 
now  was  rich  and  powerful.  Her  ships  ruled  the  seas  and 
her  soldiers  were  the  finest  in  Europe.  Within  fifty  years 
after  the  death  of  Columbus,  the  commands  of  the  emperor 
of  Spain  were  law  for  more  than  half  of  Europe. 


PART  II 
GRAVE  OF  THE  SPANIARDS 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   PIRATES 

"  Cheaply  bought,  dear  in  the  end/'  is  an  old  Spanish 
proverb.  The  hidden  treasure  of  America,  opened  as  if 
by  magic,  and  the  sudden  rise  of  Spain  to  EffectofHer 
power,  let  loose  the  harsh  and  evil  traits  of  conquests 

on  Spain 

character  that  were  in  the  end  to  corrupt  all 
classes.  In  the  New  World,  where  murder,  theft,  and 
slavery  were  the  rule,  men  came  to  despise  honest  labor. 
This  same  spirit  soon  showed  itself  in  the  mother  country. 
Enterprise  and  industry  declined.  Pride  and  tyranny  in 
America  bred  bad  government  at  home.  The  rulers  seemed 
mad  with  a  desire  to  crush  out  all  liberty  in  their  wide 
empire.  "It  was  an  ill  fortune,"  says  one  writer,  "that  led 
the  Spaniards  to  those  parts  of  America  in  which  the  pre- 
cious metals  were  found,  for  the  ruin  of  their  own  country 
was  hastened  by  the  cruel  plundering  of  Peru." 

Spain  conquered  Portugal  in  1580  and  so  came  to  con- 
trol with  iron  hand  nearly  all  the  commerce  on  all  the 
oceans.  This  drove  both  the  Dutch  and  the  English  to  make 
war.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years  the  Spanish  were 
obliged  to  fight  almost  constantly  to  hold  what  they  had 

won.     Their  soldiers  and  sailors  were  brave  enough,  as  we 

27 


28  THE  PRINCE   OF  PIRATES 

know,  but  corruption  and  mismanagement  at  home  meant 
defeat  for  Spain  abroad. 

Her  possessions  in  America  were  most  open  to  attack 
and  were  now  more  and  more  poorly  defended  by  half- 
paid  and  half-starved  troops.  French,  English,  and  Dutch 
pirates  began  to  infest  the  West  Indies  and  to  lie  in  wait 
for  the  rich  merchant  vessels  and  treasure  ships  that  sailed 
between  'Spain  and  Panama.  So  bold  were  these  pirates 
and  so  numerous  their  ships  and  men,  that  Spain  was 
helpless,  and  her  commerce  was  ruined.  Captain  Sharp, 
Lewis  Scott,  Davies,  and  Dampier  were  pirates  at  the  very 
mention  of  whose  names  Spaniards  trembled. 

But  the  prince  o£  pirates  or  buccaneers,   as  they  are 

sometimes  called,   was  Henry  Morgan.     The  account  of 

his  exploits  at  Panama  makes  the  tales  of  pirates 

Morgan  *n  tne  storybooks  seem  tame  indeed.     Born  in 

Wales,  he  ran  away  to  sea  when  still  a  mere 

boy,  was  sold  as  a  slave,  joined  the  pirates,  became  a  leader, 

and  took  part  in  many  wild  adventures. 

At  length  he  determined  to  attack  Porto  Bello  and 
assembled  nine  ships  and  four  hundred  and  sixty  men, — 
a  motley  band  of  cut-throats.  The  town  was  so  large  and 
so  well  protected  by  two  strong  forts  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbor,  that  Morgan  scarcely  dared  at  first  to  tell  his  men 
to  what  place  he  proposed  to  take  them.  But  so  skillfully 
and  secretly  did  they  approach  the  harbor  that  they  were 
able  to  surprise,  seize,  and  blow  up  one  of  the  forts.  The 


PORTO   BELLO   PLUNDERED 


29 


sound  of  the  explosion  caused  wild  panic  in  the  town. 
The  garrison  of  the  other  fort  fought  with  great  courage, 
though  unable  long  to  resist  the  furious  attacks  of  Morgan's 
men.  No  quarter  was  given,  the  town  was  set  on  fire,  and 


"RUINED  FORT  WITH  ITS  GUNS  AND  WATCHTOWERS." 

those  of  the  inhabitants  who  were  not  able  to  escape  to 
the  forests,  perished  in  the  streets  or  burning  buildings. 
For  fifteen  days  the  pirates  gave  themselves  up  to  every 
manner  of  debauchery  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  plunder. 
About  all  tt)at  was  left  of  the  flourishing  town  of  Porto 
Bello  was  the  ruined  fort  with  its  guns  and  watchtowers. 
Today  they  can  still  be  seen  much  overgrown  by  the  trop- 
ical jungle. 


SAN  LORENZO  WAS  CAPTURED 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &•  Underwood. 

INTERIOR  OF  FORT  SAN  LORENZO. 

"  Cloud-crested  San  Lorenzo  guards 

The  Chagres'  entrance  still, 
Tho'  o'er  each  stone  dense  moss  hath  grown, 

And  earth  his  moat  doth  fill." 


MARCH  ACROSS  THE  ISTHMUS  31 

Before  he  left  Morgan  sent  an  insulting  message  to  the 
governor  of  Panama,  to  the  effect  that  he  would  soon  return 
and  do  to  Panama  what  he  had  done  to  Porto         Cit   of 
Bello.     True  to  his  word,  he  returned  in  1671.          Panama 

Destroyed 

News   of   the  great   booty  captured   at   Porto 
Bello,  and  of  the  still  greater  expedition  now  planned,  had 
attracted  pirates  from  far  and  near.     Thirty-seven  ships 
and  two  thousand  men  were  soon  under  Morgan's  command. 

"On  the  Spaniards'  beach  they  landed, 

Dead  to  pity,  void  of  fear, — 
Round  their  blood-red  flag  embanded, 
Led  by  Morgan  the  Buccaneer." 

This  time  it  was  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chagres  river  and 
the  powerful  fort,  San  Lorenzo,  was  captured.  Chagrestown 
was  destroyed  and  the  pirates  continued  up  the  river  as 
far  as  they  could  go.  Then  came  such  a  nine  days'  march 
overland  as  only  hardy  pirates  could  have  endured.  Mor- 
gan had  failed  to  bring  any  food  for  his  men  and  the  Span- 
iards had  not  only  made  the  road  nearly  impassable  but 
had  also  carefully  burned  everything  that  could  be  eaten. 
At  last,  from  a  high  point  of  land  the  buccaneers  looked 
down  upon  the  lovely  harbor  and  beautiful  city  of  Panama. 
"In  a  valley  below  the  eminence  upon  which  they  stood, 
herds  of  cattle  peacefully  grazed.  The  pirates  rushed 
among  the  animals  and,  slaughtering  them,  devoured  their 
flesh  raw.  After  this  savage  feast  they  pushed  on  and 


32  A  STRANGE  BATTLE 

soon  the  plain  of  Panama  lay  before  them  with  the  city 
on  the  further  side." 

Old  Panama  was  not  a  walled  city.     Therefore  the  gov- 
ernor had  collected  his  four  regiments  of  soldiers  and  two 


OLDEST  SPANISH  CHURCH  STILL  IN  USE  ON  THE  ISTHMUS. 

hundred  cavalry  on  the  open  plain  outside  the  town.  Here 
he  had  collected  also  a  herd  of  two  thousand  wild  bulls, 
with  Indians  to  drive  them  headlong  against  the  ranks  of  the 
pirates.  In  the  fight  that  now  began  these  bulls  caused  the 
greatest  confusion.  The  pirates  succeeded  in  turning  them 
back  upon  the  Spaniards,  but  the  latter  held  their  ground 
for  two  full  hours  of  furious  battle.  When  the  cavalry 


RUIN   OF   OLD   PANAMA 


33 


had  been  routed  and  at  least  a  thousand  men  lay  dead  on 
the  field,  the  ranks  of  the  defenders  at  last  broke,  muskets 
were  thrown  away,  and  a  wild  rush  for  the  town  began. 

Not  even  the  great  guns  of  the  Spaniards  could  check 
the  invaders.  In  three  hours  more  they  were  in  possession 
of  the  city.  Immediately  the  dwellings  and  public  build- 
ings were  set  on  fire,  and  flames  and  smoke  added  to  the 
horrors  of  robbery  and  massacre.  Few  of  the  inhabitants 


CITY  WALLS  OF  NEW  PANAMA. 


escaped  death  or  capture.  Then,  amid  the  ruins,  for  a 
full  month,  the  captors  indulged  in  such  acts  of  torture  and 
debauchery  as  only  the  imagination  can  picture. 


34 


AN  ANCIENT  LANDMARK 


MASSIVE  TOWER  OF  SAINT  AUGUSTIN. 


SIR  HENRY   MORGAN 


35 


Finally  the  return  march  began.  One  hundred  and 
seventy-five  mules  and  six  hundred  prisoners  helped  to 
carry  the  plunder  back  across  the  Isthmus  to  the  ships, 


WALL  OF  TOWER  OF  ST.  AUGUSTIN. — NOTE  THICKNESS  OF  MASONRY. 

where  the  final  division  was  to  be  made.  But  with  the 
base  and  cunning  treachery  of  a  true  pirate,  Morgan  and 
a  few  friends,  while  their  comrades  slept  at  Chagrestown, 
loaded  a  vessel  to  the  water's  edge  with  the  most  valuable 
part  of  the  spoil  and  sailed  away  to  the  English  island  of 
Jamaica.  Strange  to  say,  the  outrageous  acts  of  this 
brutal  man  were  readily  forgiven  him  by  King  Charles  II 
of  England,  and  he  lived  to  be  honored  and  knighted  as 
Sir  Henry  Morgan. 


36  THE   END   OF   SPANISH  RULE 

The  massive  tower  of  the  cathedral  church  of  Saint 
Augustin,  whose  bells  "rang  out  their  clear  chimes 
one  hundred  years  before  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed 
on  Plymouth  Rock,"  alone  struggles,  amid  rank  vege- 
tation, to  mark  the  sight  of  the  once  golden  city  of 
Panama. 

The  fall  of  the  city  of  Panama  marked  the  beginning  of 
the  end  of  Spain's  power  in  the  New  World.  Though  the 
Spaniards  soon  built  a  new  town,  the  present  city  of  Pan- 
ama, five  miles  west  of  the  old  site  and  spent, 
Panama  ^  *s  sa^>  more  than  eleven  million  dollars  to 

protect  it  by  huge  walls  of  masonry,  the  trade 
and  wealth  and  glories  of  the  older  days  never  returned. 
The  province  of  Panama,  from  which  so  much  of  Spain's 
great  possessions  had  once  been  ruled,  was  soon  to  be  one 
of  nine  departments  of  the  province  of  Colombia,  and  to 
be  ruled  from  the  capital  at  Bogota. 

A  century  of  slumber  and  decay  followed.  As  Spain's 
power  in  Europe  declined,  her  rule  in  America  became 
more  than  ever  oppressive.  When  our  great-grandfathers, 
led  by  George  Washington,  fought  for  freedom  from  Eng- 
land, the  spirit  of  liberty  was  spreading  in  South  America. 
While  Washington  was  President  of  the  United  States,  the 
famous  patriot  Simon  Bolivar  was  born  in  Venezuela. 
Colombia  declared  herself  free  from  Spain  in  1811.  By 
1824  Bolivar  had  put  an  end  forever  to  Spanish  rule  in 
South  America.  The  Isthmus  remained  a  part  of  Colombia 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  PANAMA  37 

until  1903,  when  it  became  the  independent  Republic  of 
Panama. 

From  Columbus  on  for  more  than  three  hundred  years, 
Spain  had  held  the  Isthmus.  Its  possession  had  been, 
indeed,  "  dear  in  the  end," — a  real  "  Grave  of  the  Spaniards." 


PART   III 
MODERN  PANAMA 


CHAPTER  V 

LAND   OF   THE   COCOANUT   TREE 

"  Away  down  south  in  the  Torrid  Zone, 

North  latitude  nearly  nine, 
Where  the  eight  months'  pour  once  past  and  o'er, 

The  sun  four  months  doth  shine; 
Where  'tis  eighty-six  the  year  around, 

And  people  rarely  agree; 
Where  the  plantain  grows  and  the  hot  wind  blows, 

Lies  the  Land  of  the  Cocoanut  Tree." 

The  history  of  Panama  thus  far  has  brought  us  on  through 
stories  of  the  brave  old  days  of  romance  and  adventure,  of 
treasure  ships  and  daring  pirates,  of  Spanish  rule  and  ruin, 
to  modern  Panama..  There  are  stories  of  romance  and 
daring,  in  no  way  less  thrilling,  yet  to  be  told;  but  we 
shall  understand  them  better,  if  we  first  make  a  visit 
to  the  Isthmus  to  see  for  ourselves  what  this  interesting 
strip  of  land  is  like.  This  will  not  be  a  difficult  journey, 
for  comfortable  ships  from  New  Orleans  or  New  York 
will  take  us  to  Colon,  its  northern  port,  in  less  than  a 
week.  And  Panama  is  a  small  country,  too,  only  four 
hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  long,  two-thirds  the  size  of 


42  THE   ISTHMUS 

Pennsylvania,  and  not  quite  so  large  as  the  state  of  Indiana 
(Map  IV). 

Our  ideas  of  its  geography  will,  no  doubt,  need  some 
correction.     We  usually  think  of  South  America  as  some- 
where directly  south  of  the  central  part  of  the 

Geography 

United  States,  and  of  the  Isthmus,  as  running 
north  and  south  between  the  two  continents.  It  is  surprising 
to  find  that  nearly  all  of  Panama  is  further  east  than  Florida 
—(Map  I,  p.  2),  and  that  the  City  of  Panama  is  no  further 
west  than  Pittsburg.  The  Isthmus,  too,  is  shaped  like  a  flat 
letter  S  and  really  runs  about  east  and  west — (Map  III,  p. 
14).  At  Colon,  on  the  Atlantic  side,  the  sun  rises  over  the 
land  and  sets  over  the  ocean, — just  the  opposite  of  our  ex- 
pectation. Someone  has  said  very  truly  that  there  always 
seems  to  be  "  something  crooked  about  the  Isthmus." 

Panama  is  only  nine  degrees  north  of  the  equator,  and 

so   has   in   all   respects   a   tropical   climate.     The   average 

temperature   for  the  entire   year   in  the   prin- 

Climate 

cipal  cities  of  the  United  States  is  about  55° 
(Fahrenheit)  above  zero.  In  New  Orleans  it  is  67°;  in 
Boston,  50°.  In  Panama  we  must  be  prepared  for  many 
days  in  which  the  temperature  reaches  nearly  100°,  and  for 
nights  that  seldom  are  below  74°.  The  average  for  the 
year  is  considerably  above  80°,— or  30°  hotter  than  Chicago. 
In  the  United  States  we  are  accustomed  to  four  seasons 
during  the  year,  with  extremes  of  heat  in  summer  and  of 
cold  in  winter.  There  are  two  seasons  at  Panama,  but  sum- 


REPUBLIC   OF   PANAMA 


43 


MAP  IV. — THE  REPUBLIC  or  PANAMA. 


44 


TWO   SEASONS 


mer  temperature  continues  the  whole  year  through.  The 
two  seasons  depend  not  upon  the  heat  but  upon  the  rain- 
fall. For  eight  months,  from  May  to  December,  great 


U.  S.  BATTLESHIP  IN  HARBOR  OF  COLON. 

masses  of  rain  clouds  are  blown  across  the  Isthmus  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  and  terrific  downpours  of  rain  occur  almost 
daily.  The  whole  land  is  drenched  for  long  periods. 
The  inside  of  the  driest  houses  becomes  damp  and  musty. 
Books  mold  on  the  shelves,  linen  loses  its  stiffness,  iron 
rusts,  and  the  air  is  everywhere  heavy  with  moisture.  Then, 
beginning  about  the  first  of  January,  comes  the  dry  season 
of  four  months.  Yet  the  name  "dry  season"  is  deceptive, 


RAINFALL  45 

for  even  during  that  period  showers  are  frequent.  The 
fact  is,  Panama  is  one  of  the  wettest  places  in  the  world 
and  is  thoroughly  damp  the  year  round. 

On  the  Pacific  side  six  feet  of  water  fall  in  a  year,  and 
on  the  Atlantic  side,  fully  twelve  feet.  This  is  three  times 
as  much  as  falls  in  a  year's  time  in  Boston  and  fourteen 
times  as  much  as  in  El  Paso,  Texas.  Someone  has  said 
that  if  the  rain  that  falls  at  Colon  in  a  year  came  all  at 


MANZANILLO  LIGHTHOUSE  RISING  ABOVE  THEM.' 


once,  a  very  tall  man,  standing  on  the  shoulders  of  another 
equally  tall,  could  scarcely  raise  the  top  of  his  head  to  the 
surface. 


APPROACH  TO   THE   ISTHMUS 


If  it  be  the  dry  season,  the  approach  to  the  Isthmus  by 

steamer   is   not   without   beauty.     Great   masses  of  white 

clouds  drift  lazily  over  the  low  green  hills  that 

Colon 

rise  one  above  another  from  the  sea-coast.  Here 
and  there  bold  headlands  and  deep  bays  can  be  seen, 
and  many  small  islands  seem  almost  to  float  like  ships  upon 
the  blue  waters  of  the  Caribbean.  Off  in  the  distance  is  the 
mouth  of  the  Chagres  river,  and  straight  ahead,  the  harbor 


STEAMERS  AT  COLON  DOCKS. 


and  town  of  Colon,  with  Manzanillo  lighthouse  rising  above 
them.  In  the  harbor  and  at  the  docks  are  scores  of  ships; 
for  even  now  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  travelers 


UNATTRACTIVE   COLON  47 

and  a  million  tons  of  merchandise  cross  the  Isthmus  each 
year. 

Colon  is  the  Spanish  form  of  the  word  Columbus  and 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Uuderivood. 

COLON — "AN  UNPLEASANT  INTRODUCTION." 

is  the  name  given  to  the  town  by  the  government  of  Colombia 
in  honor  of  the  Discoverer.  On  his  last  journey  to  America 
Columbus  entered  Colon  harbor  in  November  of  1502  and 
called  it  Bahia  de  los  Navios. 

In  the  town  of  Colon  itself,  we  shall  be  greatly  disap- 
pointed. It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  a  more  wretched 
and  unattractive  place.  How  low  and  small  and  dirty  it 
is!  The  land  on  which  it  is  built  is  but  two  or  three  feet 


48  A   JOURNEY  ACROSS   PANAMA 

above  sea-level  and  behind  it  for  miles  are  dreary  and 
unhealthful  swamps.  Certainly  it  was  a  great  mistake  to 
build  a  town  on  such  a  spot.  A  tremendous  amount  of 
filling  in  with  rock  and  soil  must  be  done,  before  it  can  be 
in  any  sense  a  decent  place  to  live  in.  Low  frame  houses; 
narrow,  ill-smelling  streets;  a  population  of  a  few  thousand 
people  of  many  nationalities;  and  little  or  nothing  of 
interest  to  be  seen,  make  Colon  an  unpleasant  introduc- 
tion to  a  visit  on  the  Isthmus. 

Leaving  Colon  behind  we  shall  pass  on  into  the  interior 

of  the  country  and  finally  across  to  the  larger  and  more 

attractive  City  of  Panama  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

The  Interior  ,    .        , 

1  hese  two  towns  and  the  country  lying  between 
them  are  about  all  of  the  Isthmus  that  is  seen  by  the  usual 
traveler.  Much  of  the  remaining  country  is  almost  im- 
possible to  visit.  There  are  few  roads  and  many  hundred 
square  miles  even  now  are  unexplored  and  uninhabited. 
The  whole  population  of  Panama  is  about  350,000.  Out- 
side of  Colon  and  the  City  of  Panama  the  inhabitants  are 
scattered  about  the  Isthmus  in  many  small  villages,  mostly 
on  the  sea-coast. 

We  may  find  it  confusing  at  first  that  both  the  country 
and  its  chief  city  are  called  Panama.  To  avoid  difficulty 
we  shall  always  speak  of  the  latter  as  the  City  of  Panama. 

A  low  backbone  of  hills,  called  the  Cordillera  de  Bando, 
extends  throughout  the  length  of  the  Isthmus.  Only  at  a 
few  points  do  these  hills  become  real  mountains.  The 


RIVER  AND   VILLAGE 


49 


50  TROPICAL  VEGETATION 

greater  part  is  low  and  rolling.  In  the  flat,  winding  val- 
leys between  the  hills  are  many  small  rivers.  The  prin- 
cipal ones  are  the  Rio  Tuyra,  Rio  Grande,  Rio  Chepo,  and 
the  Rio  Chagres.  The  latter  flows  into  the  Atlantic  and 
is  next  to  the  longest  and  largest.  (Rio  means  river  in 
Spanish.)  In  the  dry  season  the  rivers  are  little  more 
than  small  streams,  pushing  sluggishly  through  their  swampy 
channels  toward  the  sea.  The  Chagres  is  then  about  two 
hundred  feet  wide  and  three  or  four  feet  deep.  But  in  the 
rainy  season  the  rivers  become  raging  torrents,  flooding 
miles  of  land.  The  Chagres  has  been  known  to  rise  thirty 
feet  in  one  night,  and  for  days  at  a  time  it  sweeps  away 
all  in  its  path. 

In  the  interior  of  the  country,  away  from  Colon,  there 
is  much  to  see  of  great  interest,  especially  to  those  of  us 
who  have  never  been  in  the  tropics.  With  a  hot  climate, 
rich  soil,  and  much  moisture,  almost  the  whole  of  Panama, 
up  to  the  very  hill-tops,  is  covered  with  a  tangled  jungle, 
in  which  nearly  every  form  of  tropical  vegetation  flourishes 
in  rank  luxuriance. 

Everywhere  we  see  flowers  of  most  brilliant  coloring. 
And  ferns,  shrubs,  and  vines  make  a  thick  undergrowth. 
There  are  many  strange  trees,  too,  unknown  to  more 
northern  lands.  Here  is  a  bunch  of  bamboo  trees,— 
and  there,  a  tree  called  the  coco-bolo.  The  wood  of  the 
latter  is  very  hard  and  beautiful.  Considerable  quanti- 
ties of  it  are  shipped  annually  to  the  United  States.  Per- 


SOMEWHAT   PERILOUS 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &•  Underwood. 

"THE  NATIVES  CLIMB  FOR  THEM." 


52 


PANAMA   COCOANUTS 


ful  trees. 


Palm  Trees 


haps,  if  we  should  ask  someone  who  knows,  we  should  find 
that  the  handles  on  our  knives  are  often  made  of  coco-bolo. 
Fine  cedar  and  mahogany  trees  also  furnish  valuable  tim- 
ber, and  a  certain  kind  of  palm  nuts,  called  ivory  nuts, 

are    shipped    away    to    be 
made  into  buttons. 

In  the  United  States  elms, 
maples,  pines,  and  oaks  are 
the  most  common  and  beauti- 
On  the  Isthmus 
their  places  are 
taken    by   the 
palm  trees.    Along  the  roads 
and  in  the  parks  and  gardens 
we  shall  see  the  royal  palm 
lifting  its  graceful  branches 
on  a  slender  trunk  high  into 
the    air.     This   palm   bears 
no  fruit  and  is  useful  only 

for  ornament  or  shade.  But  the  cocoanut  palm  is  both 
ornamental  and  useful,  for  its  nuts  are  collected  by  the 
natives  to  be  sold  or  used  as  food.  Several  million  cocoa- 
nuts  are  sent  to  our  markets  at  home  each  year.  No 
doubt  we  have  many  times  eaten  Panama  cocoanuts. 
Here  we  shall  see  how  they  grow.  All  over  the  Isthmus 
are  cocoanut  palms,  both  wild  and  cultivated,  in  great 
abundance.  They  seem  much  like  the  royal  palms  in 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &•  Underwood. 

NEGROES  WITH  COCOANUTS. 


A  TROPICAL   GARDEN 


53 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood. 

"HEAVY  BUNCH  OF  FRUIT. 


54  A  HANDSOME  PLANT 

shape  but  are  not  usually  so  tall.  Up  there,  underneath  the 
fronds  or  branches  and  close  to  the  trunk,  we  can  see  a 
bunch  of  half  a  dozen  or  more  large,  oval-shaped  objects. 
They  look  like  great,  dark-colored  eggs.  Each  is  a  cocoa- 
nut  wrapped  in  a  thick  green  covering  or  husk,  much  as 
chestnuts  are  wrapped  in  the  burs.  *  When  partially  ripened 
the  cocoanut  shell  and  husk  are  soft  pulp  and  the  interior 
is  full  of  a  rich,  sweet  milk.  It  is  then  that  the  natives 
climb  for  them.  The  picture  shows  three  cocoanuts  in 
husks  on  the  shoulder  of  one  negro,  while  the  other  negro 
is  cutting  away  the  husk  and  soft  shell  in  order  to  get  at 
the  delicious  milk.  When  the  cocoanuts  are  fully  ripe, 
they  drop  from  the  trees.  The  husk  is  then  dry  and  can 
be  easily  torn  off  and  the  cocoanut  at  last  appears  as  we 
are  accustomed  to  see  it  in  our  fruit  stores. 

There  is  also  a  tree-like  plant  that  is  sure  to  give  us  a 

surprise.     It  grows  to  the  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet, 

with  a  soft  trunk  marked  with  purple  stripes. 

Bananas 

and  with  immense  broad  leaves  often  six  feet 
long.  There  is  nothing  in  our  northern  climate  that  seems 
at  all  like  it.  But  if  we  look  closely,  a  heavy  bunch  of  fruit, 
on  a  thick  stem,  hanging  near  the  trunk,  easily  marks  it  as 
the  banana  plant.  Curiously  enough  the  bunch  of  bananas 
seems  to  be  upside  down,  and  the  stem  continues  beyond 
the  fruit  like  a  long  snake  and  ends  in  a  sort  of  blossom  much 
like  a  large  water-lily.  We  soon  realize  that  this  is  the  nat- 
ural way  in  which  the  banana  grows,  and  that  it  is  not  on 


READY  FOR   FOREIGN  MARKETS 


55 


•*  '  **r  / •*  £  I  .*  i 


56  SHIPMENTS   OF  BANANAS 

the  trees  but  in  our  stores  at  home  that  the  bunches  are 
hung  upside  down.  When  the  fruit  is  ripe  enough,  the  na- 
tives chop  off  the  stem  near  the  fruit,  the  long,  snaky  end 
is  cut  away,  and  the  fruit  is  ready  for  market.  In  Panama 


FIELD  OF  PINEAPPLES  ON  TABOGA  ISLAND  NEAR  CITY  OF  PANAMA. 

a  bunch  is  sold  to  the  fruit  dealers  for  about  thirty  cents. 
Nearly  four  hundred  thousand  bunches  have  been  shipped 
north  from  Colon  in  one  season,  and  thousands  more  are 
used  on  the  Isthmus  for  food.  Of  late  years,  however,  ba- 
nanas are  shipped  from  Bocas  del  Toro  instead  of  from 
Colon. 

In  Panama,  too,  grow  delicious  oranges,  papayas  (a  fruit 


OTHER  TROPICAL  FRUITS 


57' 


similar  to  melons  but  grown  on  trees),  pineapples,  limes, 
bread-fruit,  mangoes,  and  scores  of  other  tropical  fruits 
with  which  we  are  less  fami- 
liar. Nature  has  been  very 
generous  here  with  her  fruits, 
—so  much  so,  in  fact,  that 
the  natives  can  live  on  them 
with  little  or  no  effort.  But 
the  cocoanuts  and  bananas 
are  the  most  abundant  and 
most  characteristic  of  the 
Isthmus. 

A  Panama  poet  has 
written  an  interesting  little 
poem  which  describes  the 
land  in  which  he  lives.  The 
first  stanza  of  the  poem  is 

at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter.  It  would  be  easy  to  learn 
and  might  help  us  to  remember  some  of  the  more  important 
things  that  we  shall  notice  on  a  visit  to  Panama. 


Copyright  by  Underiuood  &  Underwood* 

PAPAYAS. 


CHAPTER  VI 


NATIVES   AND   ANIMALS 

Where  vegetation  grows  with  sucli  great  luxuriance,  we 
arc  not  surprised  to  find  also  an  abundance  of  animal  life. 
We  have,  no  doubt,  already  noticed  the  great  black  vultures 

sailing  about  far  up 
in  the  sky.  And 
everywhere  among 
the  trees  we  come 
upon  countless  num- 
'  bers  of  birds  of 
all  sizes  and  bright 
colors.  The  most 
noticeable  are  the 
gayly  colored  par- 
rots and  their  rela- 
tives the  brilliant- 
crested  cockatoos. 
By  the  swamps  and 
streams  are  the  peli- 
cans and  great  blue  herons.  But  we  shall  find  the  forests 
strangely  silent  and  shall  miss  the  song  birds  that  make  glad 

our  northern  woods  and  fields.     It  seems  to  be  almost  a  rule 

58 


PANAMA  HUMMING  BIRDS. 


NO  LARGE  ANIMALS 


59 


with  birds  and  flowers  that  the  more  brilliant  the  plumage 
or  coloring,  the  less  is  there  of  pleasant  song  or  perfume. 

As  we  pass  on  through  the 
jungle  a  timid  deer  may  here 
and  there  be  seen.  There 
are  snakes,  too,  numerous 
and  poisonous,  and  we  must 
have  a  care  lest  we  be  seri- 
ously bitten.  But  in  these 
woods  there  are  no  animals 
of  large  size,  like  the  lions  or 
elephants  or  other  great  game 
of  Asia  and  Africa.  Unless 
one  of  us  were  alone  and 
without  a  gun,  he  need  have 
no  fear. 

The  largest  and  most  dan- 
gerous animal  is  the  jaguar.  It  can  sometimes  be  found 
even  as  far  north  as  Texas  and  inhabits  the  woods  and 
jungles  of  all  Central  and  South  America. 
This  jaguar  is  the  largest  of  the  American 
wild  animals  of  the  cat  family  and  sometimes  grows  to 
be  ten  feet  long  from  nose  to  tip  of  tail.  It  is  a  sort  of 
cousin  of  the  leopard  or  panther  of  Asia.  If  we  can 
imagine  a  cat  as  large  in  body  as  a  Newfoundland  dog  but 
with  short  yellowish-brown  hair  and  a  long  tail,  and  marked 
all  over  its  body  with  dark  rings  and  spots,  we  shall  have 


"SNAKES,  Too,  NUMEROUS  AND 
POISONOUS." 


The  Jaguar 


6o 


WILD   HOGS 


The  Warrees 


some  idea  of  the  appearance  of  a  jaguar.  We  shall  not  see 
any  of  these  animals.  They  are  too  sly  and  cunning.  Only 
the  most  careful  hunter  could  come  within  gunshot  of  one 
of  them.  At  times  a  jaguar  will  come  out  of  the  woods  to 
attack  a  herd  of  cattle,  but  more  often  it  feeds  on  monkeys 
and  tapirs. 

An  interesting  little  animal  called  the  warree  can  at  times 
be  seen  in  the  Isthmian  jungle.  It  is  a  species  of  wild  hog. 
The  naturalist  Godman  writes  of  this  animal: 
"The  warrees  go  in  herds  of  fifty  to  one  hun- 
dred. They  are  said  to  assist  one  another  against  the 
attacks  of  the  jaguar,  but  that  wily  animal  is  too  intelligent 

for  them.  He  sits 
quietly  on  a  branch 
of  a  tree  till  the 
warrees  come  un- 
derneath, then 
jumping  down  kills 
one  by  breaking  its 
neck,  leaps  up  into 

"IT  is  A  SPECIES  OF  WILD  HOG." 

the  tree  again,  waits 

there  until  the  herd  departs,  when  he  comes  down  and 
feeds  on  the  slaughtered  warree  in  quietness." 

The  warree  is  black  in  color,  except  that  its  lips  and  jaw 
are  pure  white.  It  is  about  forty  inches  long,  with  short 
but  nimble  legs.  Very  large  tusks  and  a  coarse  fur  of  stiff, 
strong  bristles  give  it  a  fierce  appearance.  Close  acquaint- 


HUNTING  WARREES  61 

ance  with  this  little  wild  hog  is  not  always  agreeable.  Mr. 
Temple,  former  Chief  Justice  of  Belize  in  Central  America, 
says : 

"If  you  meet  a  flock  of  warrees  in  the  bush  and  take  no 
notice  of  them,  it  is  probable  that  they  will  take  no  notice 
of  you,  but  if  your  intentions  are  hostile  and  your  design  is 
to  transfer  one  of  them  from  his  native  wilderness  to  your 
kitchen,  you  must  take  care  to  place  yourself  in  a  safe  po- 
sition before  you  carry  your  design  into  execution.  A  gen- 
tleman not  long  since  shot  a  warree  without  having  taken 
the  necessary  precautions.  The  remainder  of  the  flock  in- 
stantly pursued  him,  and  if  he  had  not  managed  to  climb 
into  a  tree  he  would  have  been  torn  to  pieces.  But  he  was 
kept  a  prisoner  in  that  leafy  asylum  for  many  hours,  the 
surviving  warrees  being  bent  on  revenging  the  death  of  their 
companion.  Even  when  the  flock  went  a  little  distance  to 
feed,  they  left  two  or  three  to  stand  guard  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree." 

Perhaps  we  may  have  the  good  luck  also  to  see  some 
Panama  monkeys.     In  the  continents  of  North  and  South 
America  monkeys  are  not  so  common  as  in 
the    Eastern    Hemisphere.     They    are    found          Monkeys 
in  abundance  only  from  Panama  to  Brazil. 

Years  ago  there  were  great  droves  of  monkeys,  both  black 
and  white,  in  the  Panama  woods.  Now  there  are  not  so 
many  left.  Away  back  in  the  year  1681  Captain  Dampier, 
an  English  pirate  like  Henry  Morgan,  crossed  Panama. 


62 


DAMPIER'S   DIARY 


Tie  had  been  a  great  traveler  and  had  seen  monkeys  in  many 
other  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  interesting  to  read  in  his  diary 
a  description  of  the  Panama  monkeys  of  his  time.  They 

are  much  the  same  to-day. 

He  said, — "The  monkeys 
tli at  arc  in  these  parts  are 
tht'  ugliest  I  ever  saw.  They 
are  much  bigger  than  a  hare, 
with  a  black,  hard  skin;  but 
the  upper  side,  and  all  the 
body  is  covered  with  coarse, 
long,  black  hair.  These  crea- 
tures keep  together  twenty 
or  thirty  in  a  company,  and 
ramble  over  the  woods,  leap- 
ing from  tree  to  tree.  If  they 


EADHOAVES  5%ffi?"  "'«*  with  a  single  person  they 

will  threaten  to  devour  him. 

When  I  have  been  alone  I  have  been  afraid  to  shoot  them, 
especially  the  first  time  I  met  them.  They  were  a  great 
company  dancing  from  tree  to  tree,  over  my  head,  chattering 
and  making  a  terrible  noise,  and  a  great  many  grim  faces, 
and  showing  antic  gestures.  Some  broke  down  dry  sticks 
and  threw  at  me.  At  last  one  bigger  than  the  rest  came  to 
a  small  limb  just  over  my  head,  and  leaping  directly  at  me 
made  me  start  back;  but  the  monkey  caught  hold  of  a 
bough  with  the  tip  of  his  tail,  and  there  continued  swinging 


ANOTHER  PANAMA  ANIMAL  63 

to  and  fro,  making  mouths  at  me.  At  last  I  passed  on,  they 
still  keeping  me  company,  with  the  like  menacing  postures, 
till  I  came  to  our  huts. 

"  The  tails  of  these  monkeys  are  as  good  to  them  as  one 
of  their  hands,  and  they  will  hold  as  fast  by  them.  The 
females  with  their  young  are  much  troubled  to  leap  after 
the  males,  for  they  have  commonly  two;  one  she  carries 
under  one  of  her  arms,  the  other  sits  on  her  back,  and 
clasps  its  two  fore-paws  about  her  neck.  These  monkeys 
are  the  most  sullen  I  have  ever  met  with,  for  all  the  art  we 
could  use  would  never  tame  them.  It  is  a  hard  matter 
to  shoot  one  of  them  so  as  to  take  it;  for  if  it  gets  hold 
with  its  claws  or  tail,  it  will  not  fall  so  long  as  one  breath 
of  life  remains." 

This   same    Captain   Dampier   was   much   interested   in 
another  curious  Panama  animal.     The  Spanish  discover- 
ers  called    it    the    armadillo,    because    it    was 
protected  by  a  thick- jointed  shell,  like  a  suit          Armadillo 
of  armor.     It  is  a  funny  little  creature  that 
looks  like  an  opossum  with  a  shell  on  its  back.     Dampier 
describes  it  as  about  the  size  of  a  "small  sucking  pig,- 
the  body  of  it  pretty  long." 

"This  creature,"  he  said,  "is  enclosed  in  a  thick  shell, 
which  guards  all  its  back,  and  comes  down  on  both  sides, 
and  meets  under  the  belly,  leaving  room  for  the  four 
legs;  the  head  is  small,  with  a  nose  like  a  pig,  a  pretty 
long  neck,  and  can  put  out  its  head  before  its  body 


64 


A  SNAKE   KILLER 


when  it  walks;  but  on  any  danger  he  puts  it  in  under 
the  shell;  and  drawing  in  his  feet,  he  lies  stock-still  like 
a  land  turtle.  And  though  you  toss  him  about  he  will 

. not    move    himself. 

The  shell  is  jointed 
in  the  middle  of 
the  back;  so  that 
he  can  turn  the 
fore-part  of  his  body 
about  which  way  he 
pleases.  The  feet 
are  like  those  of  a 
land  turtle,  and  he 
has  strong  claws 
wherewith  he  digs  holes  in  the  ground  "like  a  coney." 

"According  to  an  old  Mexican  legend,  the  armadillo  was 
sent  in  direct  answer  to  the  prayers  of  the  devout  people 
who  long  ago  resided  in  a  part  of  Mexico  which  was  badly 
infested  with  venomous  snakes.  The  inhabitants  so  be- 
seeched  the  Almighty  for  relief  that  suddenly  all  the  ser- 
pents seemed  to  have  vanished  from  the  earth.  In  going 
about  the  region  once  so  badly  plagued  the  natives  could 
find  no  more  opossums,  but  instead  an  animal  that  seemed 
to  be  one,  except  that  on  its  back  was  a  shell.  This  was 
its  armor  which  brought  immunity  from  the  bite  of  a  snake, 
and  thenceforth  the  armadillo  began  to  make  unrelenting 
warfare  on  all  poisonous  reptiles.  It  is  still  true  to  its 


"THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS  CALLED  IT  THE 
ARMADILLO." 


THE  TAPIR 


reputation,   and  wherever  found  is  on  the  job  of  snake 
killing,  as  it  was  centuries  ago  in  Old  Mexico. 

"Native  hunters  usually  trade  them  to  their  burrows 
with  dogs,  which  give  notice  if  an  occupant  is  at  home. 
The  hunter  then  using  his  bush-knife  as  a  pick,  and  his 
hands  as  a  shovel,  commences  with  the  utmost  dispatch 
to  dig  out  the  animal,  which  all  the  while  endeavors  to 
escape  by  scratching  deeper  into  the  ground.  It  is  a  race 
between  the  armadillo  and  the  man,  and  an  even  chance 
which  succeeds.  The  tail  is  the  first  part  seized  by  the 
hunter,  and  then  after  a  short  struggle,  the  victim  suc- 
cumbs. The  flesh  of  the  armadillo  is  tender,  white,  and 
usually  esteemed  a 
delicacy." 

The  flesh  of  the 

tapir  also  is  used  for 

food  by 

The  Tapir 

some  of 

the  Indians  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  Central 
America.     This  ani- 
mal  is  common  in 
the  jungle  of  Pana- 
ma, though  here  the  San  Bias  Indians  seldom  hunt  for  it. 
Like  the  armadillo  it  is  very  different  from  any  animal  with 
which  we  are  familiar  in  the  United  States.     In  fact,  it  is 
seldom  found  even  as  far  north  as  the  City  of  Mexico. 


"A  NATIVE  OF  PANAMA." 


66 


AN  UGLY  BEAST 


Neither  is  it  to  be  seen  in  most  parts  of  South  America. 
So  that  we  may  think  of  the  tapir  as  more  truly  a  native  of 
Panama  and  the  nearby  countries  than  any  other  animal 
in  the  jungle. 

It  is  a  small,  fat,  slow-moving  animal,  about  two  feet 
tall  and  four  feet  long.  The  color  is  blackish-brown, 
lighter  on  the  head  and  passing  into  pale  brown  on  the 

cheeks,  the  edges  of 
the  lips,  and  the  tip 
of  the  ears. 

The  tapirs  are 
hunted  usually  dur- 
ing the  rainy  sea- 
sons, when  they 
come  down  from 

the  hills  into  the  low  valleys  to  feed  on  the  coarse  grass 
by  the  river  banks.  Dogs  run  them  down  for  the  hunters 
and  they  are  then  shot  or  killed  with  spears. 

Though  the  various  animals  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking  can  all  be  seen  in  the  Panama  woods  by  those 
who  have  the  time  to  spare  to  look  for  them, 
the  casual  traveler  who  passes  from  Colon  to 
Panama  City  may  not  see  them  at  all.  But  it  would  not 
be  difficult  for  anyone  to  see  the  alligators  that  are  com- 
mon in  nearly  all  the  streams  and  rivers. 

If  we  had  time  to  spare  and  wanted  a  little  excitement, 
we  might  join  an  alligator  hunt.  These  dirty  beasts  inhabit 


PANAMA  WATER  LIZARD. 


Alligators 


HUNTING  ALLIGATORS 


68 


TROPHIES 


the  swampy  streams  and  can  often  be  seen  as  they  sun  them- 
selves upon  the  banks.  They  lie  there  motionless,  much 
like  old  rotten  logs  half  buried  in  the  mud.  If  anyone  of  us 
made  a  mistake  and  jumped  out  on  one,  his  visit  to  Panama 


LENGTH  OF  NEAREST  ALLIGATOR  WAS  18  FEET  6  INCHES.    STICKS  IN  MOUTHS  ABOUT 

30  INCHES  LONG. 


might  come  to  a  sudden  end  then  and  there.  Wise  people 
keep  away  from  these  animals,  unless  heavily  armed  and 
accustomed  to  their  tricks. 

Probably  by  this  time  we  should  be  glad  if  it  were  as  easy 
to  escape  from  all  the  dangerous  and  troublesome  animals 
on  the  Isthmus,  as  it  is  from  the  alligators. 


SCENE  IN  COLON  HARBOR 


69 


'Copyright  by  Underwood  &•  Underwood. 

"IN  THE  HARBOR  OF  COLON  WE  MAY  SEE  SOME  OF  THE  SAN  BLAS  INDIANS." 


70  A  DANGEROUS   PEST 

"My  touch  is  light  and  downy, 
They  know  not  I  am  there 
Till  ZIM!  what  howls  and  curses! 
'Tis  laughable  I  swear!" 

So  says  the  Panama  mosquito, — at  least  the  Panama  poet 
tells  us  that  he  does.     It  may  be  laughable, — for  the  mos- 
quito.    But  when  we  see  with  what  care  the 

Panama 

Mosquitoes  nouses  are  screened  against  this  little  pest,  and 
learn  that  one  sort  of  mosquito  carries  in  its 
sting  the  germs  of  the  dreaded  Yellow  Fever,  we  shall  come 
to  think  of  this  tiny  animal,  as,  in  many  ways,  the  most 
dangerous  in  Panama.  The  bites  of  fleas  and  sand  flies  are 
bad  enough,  and  there  are  many  of  them;  but  the  bite  of 
some  Panama  mosquitoes  may  mean  death. 

We  can  see  now  that  the  wild  animals  of  the  Isthmus  are 
many  of  them  as  different  from  the  wild  animals  of  the 
United  States,  as  are  the  trees  and  fruits  different  from  our 
own.  We  shall  also  see  that  the  people  themselves  are  quite 
as  different. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  population  of  Panama  as  about 

350,000.     The  white  inhabitants  are  a  small  part  of  this 

number.     Of  these  there  are  some  Americans, 

The  People 

some  Europeans,  some  Chinese,  and  many  of 
old  Spanish  blood.  These  form  the  better  class  and  live 
for  the  most  part  in  the  towns.  Below  them  are  the 
"  natives,"  so  called.  This  class  is  made  up  of  the  San  Bias 
Indians,  descended  from  the  Indians  of  Balboa's  time;  the 


CANOEING  FOR  PLEASURE 


71 


Copy  right  by  Under-wood  &  Underwood. 

NATIVES  IN  A  BOAT  MADE  OF  A  SINGLE  LOG. 


72  SAN  BLAS   INDIANS 

negroes,  many  of  whose  ancestors  came  to  Panama  as  slaves 
in  the  old  Spanish  days;  and  a  great  number  of  dark- 
skinned  people  of  part  Spanish,  part  Indian,  and  part 
negro  blood. 

In  the  harbor  of  Colon  or  during  our  journey  across  the 
Isthmus  we  may,  perhaps,  see  some  of  the  San  Bias  Indians. 
There  seems  to  have  been  a  number  of  large  Indian  tribes  in 
Panama  when  the  Spanish  first  conquered  it.  One  author- 
ity puts  the  total  number  of  Indians  at  that  time  as  high  as 
2,000,000.  But  the  long  years  of  Spanish  cruelty  and  blood- 
shed were  very  hard  on  them  and  roused  a  most  bitter  hatred 
of  the  whites. 

Their  homes  are  many  miles  away  from  Colon  in  the  for- 
est country  in  the  eastern  part  of  Panama.  But  they  are 
occasionally  seen  near  the  towns,  when  they  bring  in  nuts 
!and  fruit  to  trade  for  the  necessities  of  life.  Some  stories 
told  of  them  show  that  they  are  still  treacherous  and  still 
hate  the  white  people. 

We  may  take  as  an  example  the  fate  of  an  expedition  of 
1854,  led  by  Lieutenant  Strain  of  the  U.  S.  Navy.  In  Jan- 
uary of  that  year  three  warships  were  sent  to  Caledonia  Bay 
fai  the  Gulf  of  Darien,  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  and  sur- 
veying the  country.  A  party  of  twenty-seven  men,  led  by 
Lieutenant  Strain,  was  landed.  "The  start  was  made  from 
Caledonia  Bay,  on  the  2oth  of  January,  with  the  intention  of 
crossing  the  Isthmus  to  the  Gulf  of  San  Miguel  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast.  At  first  the  Indians  were  friendly,  or  appeared 


TIMID   NEGROES 


Copyright  by  Under-wood  &  Under-wood. 

»  SOME  MUST  BE  CAUGHT  AND  HELD  BEFORE  THE  CAMERA." 


74 


LIEUTENANT   STRAIN'S  ADVENTURE 


to  be  so,  and  served  as  guides;  but  after  a  few  days  they 
deserted  the  surveying  party  in  the  depth  of  the  tropical 
wilderness.  The  party  then  became  hopelessly  bewildered, 


NATIVE  CHARCOAL  BURNERS,  HUTS,  AND  FAMILIES. 

the  food  supply  failed,  and  one  third  of  the  number  perished 
from  exposure  and  starvation.  After  ninety-five  terrible 
days  of  suspense  and  suffering,  Lieutenant  Strain  and  two 
or  three  others  made  their  way  to  the  Pacific,  were  rescued 
by  a  friendly  Spanish  native,  and  taken  to  Panama.  The 
other  surviving  members  of  the  sorrowful  expedition  at 
last  returned  to  Caledonia  Bay  in  complete  exhaustion. 
Lieutenant  Strain  died,  and  his  remains  were  buried  at 


POOR  WORKMEN  7$ 

Colon,  to  be  afterward  exhumed  and  taken  to  the  United 
States." 

As  for  the  negroes,  some  live  a  life  away  off  in  the  forests 
almost  as  wild  as  the  Indians.  They  are  not  at  all  danger- 
ous. Indeed,  they  are  so  timid  as  to  be  hard  to  photograph. 
Some  must  be  caught  and  held  before  the  camera. 

The  natives  in  the  towns  or  in  their  little  settlements 
nearby  are  better  clothed  and  housed  and  are  an  interesting 


"BUSTING  BUTTONS" — PANAMA  WOMEN  WASHING  BY  THE  CHAGRES  RIVER. — NOTE 
THE  THICK,  HEAVY  CLUB  WITH  WHICH  THE  WET  CLOTHES  ARE  BEATEN. 

and  intelligent  people.  But  life  is  so  easy  for  them  on  the 
Isthmus,  that  they  are  poor  workmen  and  inclined  to  be  very 
lazy  and  shiftless.  What  queer  little  thatched  huts  they 


76 


NEGRO   HOMES 


NATIVE  HUTS. — NOTE  THE  COCOANUT  PALMS. 


NATIVE  BOY  BEATING  RICE  PREPARATORY  TO  COOKING. 


FOOD  77 

build!  Surrounded  by  groves  of  cocoanut  palms,  they  are 
picturesque  enough,  but  scarcely  such  places  as  we  should 
care  to  live  in.  The  principal  food  of  the  natives  consists 
of  fruit  and  fish.  Both  salt-water  and  fresh-water  fish 
abound.  Yams,  yucca,  plantains  or  bananas  are  always  at 
hand.  Rice  is  also  a  regular  article  of  diet.  It  is  bought  in 
small  quantities  and  pounded  into  a  sort  of  meal  in  a  large 
wooden  mortar.  Little  or  no  meat  is  eaten,  and  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  food  is  not  strengthening  enough  to  give  the 
natives  much  energy.  No  wonder  that  they  do  not  care  to 
work! 


CHAPTER  VII 

CITY   OF   PANAMA 

And  so  we  have  made  our  way  across  the  Isthmus,  through 
the  forest  jungle  and  the  native  villages,  until  the  Pacific 
and  the  City  of  Panama  come  into  view. 

Before  entering  the  town,  let  us  get  a  general  idea  of  its 
location  and  surroundings  from  the  slopes  of  Ancon  Hill, 
which  rises  directly  behind  it.  How  superb  is  the  view  here 
spread  out  before  us!  Below  is  the  little  city,  scattered  over 
a  rocky  point  of  land, — and  there,  the  broad  and  beautiful 
Gulf  of  Panama  framed  in  green  hills.  Away  off  in  the  dis- 
tance the  Pearl  Islands  can  just  be  seen,  while  near  at  hand 
Taboga  and  its  neighboring  islands  rise  abruptly  from  the 
blue  waters  of  the  bay.  And  over  all  are  bright  skies  and 
brilliant  sunlight.  We  shall  travel  far  before  finding  a  city 
more  attractively  situated. 

Even  from  a  distance  the  town  has  a  foreign  appearance, 

and  a  closer  view  adds  to  this  impression.     How  strangely 

narrow    its   streets    are!    And    see, — how   the 

Appearance       curious  old  Spanish  balconies  project  over  the 

sidewalks  and  protect  the  passer-by  from  the 

sunlight!     At  least  the  lower  parts  of  the  houses  are  very 

heavily  built,  with  few  windows  and  these  strongly  barred, 

78 


THE  NEW   CITY 


79 


8o 


STREETS  AND   HOUSES 


as  if  to  stand  a  siege.     No  lawns  separate  them  from  the 
streets.     It  is  but  a  step  to  the  sidewalk.     Doors  are  open 

everywhere.  The 
interiors  of  the 
houses  of  the  poorer 
people  are  in  full 
view  from  the 
streets.  We  shall 
find,  however,  that 
the  homes  of  the 
better  class  are  in 
the  second  story  of 
their  houses  and 
more  removed  from 
the  noise  and  dirt. 

Let  us  pass  di- 
rectly into  the 
town  to  Independ- 
ence Plaza.  Here 
stands  the  old 
Cathedral  of  Pan- 
ama,— with  its  twin  spires,  Spanish  architecture,  and  clang- 
ing bells.  In  front  of  it  is  the  open  park  or  Plaza.  This  is 
the  center  about  which  the  town  is  built.  The 
chief  hotel,  the  Bishop's  palace,  the  City  Hall, 
and  the  principal  clubs,  are  all  on  this  Plaza.  Here,  on 
Sunday  evenings,  rich  and  poor  alike  gather  to  listen  to 


"How  STRANGELY  NARROW  ITS  STREETS  ARE!' 


The  Plaza 


INDEPENDENCE   PLAZA 


81 


the  band  concerts  or  to  promenade  beneath  the  lights  and 
palm  trees.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years  this  Plaza 
has  witnessed  some  of  the  most  important  events  in  the 
history  of  Panama.  If  the  City  of  Panama  is  the  capital  of 
the  Republic,  this  small  square  is  its  very  heart.  There  are 
other  old  churches  and  other  parks  in  the  city,  but  none 
quite  so  interesting 
as  these. 

Not  all  the  town, 
however,  is  as  at- 
tractive as Independ- 
ence Plaza.  Much 
filth,  many  vile 
quarters,  evil-smell- 
ing and  unhealth- 
ful  streets,  reveal 
the  usual  conditions 
that  are  all  too 
common  in  tropical 
cities.  Yet  our 
general  feeling,  as 
we  examine  the 
town,  will  not  be 
wholly  unpleasant. 

From  the  Cathedral  Plaza  it  is  only  a  short  walk  to  the 
harbor.  A  stroll  out  on  the  old  sea-wall  is  full  of  novelty 
and  interest..  This  is  the  very  same  wall  which  the  Spaniards 


Copyright  by  IVm.  H.  Rate. 

CALLE  BOLIVAR,  ONE  OF  THE  BETTER  STREETS  OF 
PANAMA  CITY. 


82 


THE   OLD   CATHEDRAL 


PANAMA  CATHEDRAL  AND  CORNER  OF  INDEPENDENCE  I'LAXA. 

Two  towers  the  old  Cathedral  lifts 
Above  the  sea- walled  town. 

In  either  turret,  staves  in  hand, 
All  day  the  mongrel  ringers  stand 
And  sound,  far  over  bay  and  land, 
The  Bells  of  Panama. 

built  to  protect  the  town  in  the  old  pirate  days.  They 
must  surely  have  expected  Henry  Morgan  to  return  with 
his  blood-thirsty  pirates,  so  thick  and  high  did  they  build 
it.  In  fact,  so  much  money  was  spent  upon  it  that  the 
angry  Spanish  king  is  said  to  have  asked  if  it  were  not 
built  entirely  of  silver.  Only  portions  of  the  old  walls  now 
remain. 


TIDES   IN  THE  PACIFIC 


At  Colon  the  tide  rises  and  falls  less  than  two  feet, — that 
is,  the  surface  of  the  ocean  always  remains  at  about  the 

same 
Beach  level 

Market 

At  Pan- 
ama, on  the  other 
hand,  the  tide  rises 
and  falls  nearly 
twenty  feet.  Dur- 
ing one  part  of  the 
day  we  may  see  the 
city  wall  at  high 
tide  and  with  num- 
bers of  small  fruit 
and  fishing  boats 
anchored  near  it. 
The  same  spot  at 
low  tide  would 
scarcely  be  recog- 
nized. The  vessels 
are  lying  on  dry 
bottom  and  their 
cargoes  are  being 
unloaded.  From  up 
and  down  the  coast 
all  manner  of  fruits  are  brought  in  these  boats,  and  when 
the  tide  is  out,  the  "beach  market"  makes  an  odd  sight. 


OLD  CATHEDRAL  BELLS,  PANAMA  CITY. 


84 


ECUADOR  HATS 


At  home  we  most  often  hear  the  name  of  Panama  con- 
nected with  the  soft,  beautifully-woven  hats,  so  common  in 

summer  weather.  Some  of  us  may  have  been 
Hats™  looking  curiously  into  the  native  huts  or  into 

the  city  houses,  in  the  hope  of  seeing  the  people 
at  work  on  these  hats.  They  can  be  seen  in  most  of  the 
curious  little  stores,  but  where  are  they  made,  we  ask.  Not 
at  all  in  Panama,  is  the  reply,  but  away  off  on  the  west  coast 


THE  CITY  WALL  AT  HIGH  TIDE. 


of  South  America,  in  Ecuador.  The  Panama  merchants 
buy  them  from  that  distant  country,  and  then  they,  in  turn, 
sell  them  to  our  hatters  in  the  United  States.  They  might 


LIFE  IN  PANAMA   CITY  85 

more  truly  be  called  Ecuador  hats.  The  name  "  Panama 
hat,"  then,  refers  not  so  much  to  the  place  where  they  are 
made  as  to  the  particular  kind  of  material  and  weave  of 


THE  SAME  SPOT  AT  Low  TIDE. 

the  hats.  Indeed,  many  people  suspect  that  the  cheaper 
kinds  of  Panama  hats  are  made  even  in  Paris  or  New 
York. 

We  cannot  stay  long  in  the  city  without  realizing  that 
the  customs  of  the  people  are  in  many  ways  as  foreign  to 
;  our  own  as  the  city  is  foreign  in  appearance.     Sensible  peo- 
ple will  not,  perhaps,  think  any  the  less  of  the  Panamanians 
for  that.     The  clanging  of  many  church-bells  will  not  al- 


86 


TWO   BUSY  PLACES 


OFFICE  OF  THE  PANAMA  LOTTERY. 


NATIONAL    LOTTERY 


ways  mean  much  church-going. 
And  some  of  us  may  be  shocked 
to  find  cock-fighting  and  an  oc- 
casional bull-fight  on  Sunday.  In 

Panama,  also,  the 
Panama  C  government  permits  a 

National  Lottery. 
This  is  forbidden  by  law  in  our 
country.  Lottery  advertisements 
and  tickets  cannot  be  carried  by 
the  United  States  mails.  Our  gov- 
ernment has  decided  that  lotteries, 
in  general,  do  more  harm  than 
good. 

On  the  Cathedral  Plaza  is  the 
office  of  the  Loteria  de  Panama. 
We  are  told  that  there  is  one  lot- 
tery, or  drawing,  each  week.  Per- 
haps ten  thousand  tickets  may  be 
sold  at  $1.25  each.  So  the  Lot- 
tery receives  $12,500  for  that  week. 
Each  ticket  has  a  number  on  it 
which  differs  from  the  number  on 
any  other  ticket.  There  are  a  large 
number  of  prizes  in  money  offered, 
—some  few  amount  to  more  than 
$1,250, — others  to  only  a  few  dol- 


PANAMA  LOTTERY  TICKET. 


88 


THE   DRAWING 


lars.  When  all  are  added  together,  they  do  not  nearly  equal 
the  whole  amount  of  money  taken  in  by  the  lottery  for  that 
week;  so  that  even  after  the  prizes  are  given,  a  large  profit 
remains. 

Then,   on   Sunday,   comes   the   drawing.     Great   excite- 
ment prevails.     The  street  and  Plaza  in  front  of  the  Lot- 


PRESIDENT  OBALDIA  AND  WIFE  IN  FRONT  OF  PRESIDENTIAL  PALACE. 

tery  office  are  crowded.  If  we  push  our  way  inside,  we 
shall  see  how  the  drawing  is  done.  Various  ways  are 
employed  at  different  times,  but  all  are  apparently  honest 
enough.  Every  care  is  taken  to  prevent  cheating.  A 
common  way  is  to  have  some  little  black  balls  in  a  box  or 


OBALDIA  89 

basket.  Each  ball  has  a  number  inside  it.  The  basket 
is  shaken  and  a  fixed  number  of  balls  drawn  out.  When 
they  are  opened  and  the  numbers  inside  are  put  together 
in  their  order  of  drawing,  we  have  the  number  of  the  lot- 
tery ticket  that  is  to  receive  the  largest  prize.  The  lucky 
holder  of  that  ticket  hurries  forward  and  is  paid  his  prize 
in  cash.  He  has  paid  in  only  $1.25,  but  has  won,  perhaps, 
several  thousand  dollars.  The  other  prizes  are  awarded 
in  the  same  way.  The  whole  Lottery  is,  of  course,  a  plan 
to  encourage  gambling.  But  in  Panama  there  seems  to 
be  no  objection  to  it. 

As  we  pass  about  the  streets,  it  may  be  our  good  fortune 
to  catch  sight  of  Senor  Jose  Domingo  de  Obaldia,  now  pres- 
ident (IQIO)  of  Panama.  We  have  already 

The  Republic 

learned  that  in  December,  1903,  Panama  be- 
came an  independent  nation,  free  from  Colombia,  of  which 
country  she  had  so  long  been  a  part.  Now  the  little  Re- 
public, made  up  of  seven  provinces,  has  a  constitution  and 
form  of  government  similar  in  most  respects  to  our  own. 
It  has  its  own  stamps,  coins,  flag,  government  buildings, 
etc.,  and  has  the  peculiar  advantage  of  the  special  protec- 
tion of  the  United  States. 


PART  IV 
KEY   TO   THE  PACIFIC 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ROADWAYS   ACROSS   CENTRAL  AMERICA 

If  we  made  a  visit  to  Panama  merely  to  see  a  tropical 
country  in  many  ways  so  very  different  from  our  own,  and 
to  look  upon  the  ruins  of  the  glorious  old  days  of  Spanish 
rule,  we  should  certainly  be  well  rewarded.  But,  as  every- 
one knows,  there  is  something  else  to  be  seen  at  Panama. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world  are  now 
turned  with  tremendous  interest  to  this  little  country.  Dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  our  stay  in  Panama  we  shall  try  to  learn 
why  this  is  so. 

We  begin  with  the  story  of  a  most  remarkable  little  rail- 
road.    While  at  Panama  we  shall  be  obliged  to 
travel  considerably  on  this  road,  and  a  knowl-  Railroad 

edge  of  its  history  will  add  much  to  our  interest. 

There  was  a  time,  as  late  as  the  year  1889,  when  tickets 
for  a  forty-eight  mile  railroad  journey  at  Panama  cost  $25 
in  gold, — or  more  than  fifty  cents  per  mile.  If  we  paid  the 
same  rate  at  home,  it  would  cost  more  than  $200  to  go 
from  New  York  City  to  Buffalo  or  from  Chicago  to  Minne- 
apolis. Few  persons  could  afford  to  take  many  such  trips. 
The  rates  at  Panama  are  still  very  high. 

We  shall  notice  that  all  the  telegraph  poles  along  the  road 

93 


94 


FIVE   IMPORTANT   ROUTES 


MAP  V. — ROUTES  ACROSS  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


ENEMIES   OF   THE   RAILROAD 


95 


are  of  iron  instead  of  wood,  and  if  we  get  out,  when  the  train 
stops,  and  look  carefully  at  the  cross-ties  beneath  the  rails, 
we  shall  find  that  they  are  all  of  lignum  vitae,  almost  the 
hardest  wood  in  the  world.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  drive 
a  spike  into  these  cross-ties.  Holes  for  them  must  be  bored 


PEDRO  MIGUEL. — PANAMA  RAILROAD. 

out.  And  this  is,  of  course,  a  long  and  expensive  task.  It 
is  odd  to  think  that  all  this  trouble  was  made  necessary  by 
harmless-looking  ants.  We  have  heard  of  beavers  cutting 
down  young  trees  with  their  sharp  teeth,  in  order  to  eat  the 
tender  twigs  and  leaves  or  to  use  the  branches  in  building 
their  mud  houses.  But  that  ants  will  eat  dry,  hard  telegraph 


96  SPANISH   ROADS 

poles  and  railroad  cross-ties  seems  like  a  fairy  story.  We  may 
smile  at  the  idea,  but  it  is  true  nevertheless.  In  the  forests 
of  Panama  there  are  great  colonies  of  wood-eating  ants  that 
will  eat  into  and  destroy  any  but  the  very  hardest  wood.  Iron 
and  lignum  vitae,  however,  have  proved  too  much  for  them. 

The  story  of  the  building  of  the  Panama  railroad  takes  us 
back  again,  for  a  moment,  to  the  early  Spanish  times.  When 
all  that  long  stretch  of  land  between  North  and  South  Amer- 
ica which  we  call  Central  America  (Map  V)  was  discovered 
and  conquered  by  Spain,  and  the  rich  west  coast  of  America 
fell  into  her  hands,  the  Spaniards  naturally  began  to  look 
for  the  best  places  for  roadways  across  from  the  Atlantic  to' 
the  Pacific. 

We  remember  that  Balboa,  in  1514,  cut  a  rude  road  across 

the  Isthmus  through  the  jungle  and  carried  his  ships  over 

it.     It  is  marked  as  No.  2,  Map  V.     This  was 

Road*  ^e  ^rst  roadway  built  by  white  men  between 

the  two  oceans.     It  was  also,  by  chance,  the 

shortest, — about   thirty  miles.     But  no  towns  grew  up  at 

either  end  and  it  soon  disappeared. 

When  Governor  Pedrarias  built  the  City  of  Panama  and 

the  towns  of  Nombre  de  Dios  and  Porto  Bello,  he  began 

a  good,  paved  road  between  them  (No.  3,  Map 

Panama  y^      rpj^    rQaj    wag    £^y   mjjes    JQng    ancj    wag 

wide  enough  to  allow  two  carts  to  be  driven 
abreast  along  it.  No  expense  was  spared  to  make  it  a  good 
way  for  travel  and  commerce. 


A  BETTER  ROAD   NEEDED  97 

In  1525  Cortes,  the  Spanish  ruler  of  Mexico,  found  that 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  across  to  Tehuantepec  Bay  (Ta- 
wan-ta-pek')  was  but  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  and  that  the  passes  through  the  moun-      Roa<iantePe< 
tains  were  but  nine  hundred  feet  above  the  sea. 
So  he  built  a  highway  at  this  point  (No.  5,  Map  V),  known 
as  the  Tehuantepec  Road.     From  that  day  to  this  an  ex- 
tensive trade  has  been  carried  over  that  route. 

During  all  the  long  years  that  Spain  held  it,  and  for  many 
years  after,  the  Tehuantepec  and  the  Panama  roads  were 
the  only  important  routes  across  Central  America.  There 
are  men  still  living  who  crossed  by  these  roads,  when  no 
others  existed. 

There  came  a  time,  however,  when  a  better  road  was 
greatly  needed.  We  have  all  heard  of  the  war  between  the 
United  States  and  Mexico  in  1846  and  1847, 
which  gave  to  the  United  States  New  Mexico,  R^ad^ 
Arizona,  and  California,  and  much  other  land 
besides.  At  that  time  there  were  less  than  nine  thousand 
miles  of  railroad  in  all  the  United  States,  and  it  was  im- 
possible to  go  from  New  York  even  as  far  west  as  Chicago 
by  rail.  Many  hundreds  of  miles  of  unexplored  prairies 
and  Rocky  Mountains  lay  between  Chicago  and  California. 
The  trails  for  horses  and  wagons  were  very  dangerous,  the 
journey  required  several  months,  and  hostile  Indians  were 
everywhere.  For  government  service,  for  soldiers,  and  for 
the  mails  an  easier  route  was  necessary. 


98 


GOLD   SEEKERS 


We  have  all  heard,  too,  of  the  wonderful  discovery  of 
gold  in  California  in  1848,  and  of  the  crowds  of  excited 
men  who  rushed  to  the  new  gold  fields.  Long  caravans 
of  horses  and  wagons  conveyed  thousands  west  from  St. 
Louis.  But  there  were  thousands  more  of  the  Forty-niners, 


OLD  FORT  AND  PORTION  OF  CITY  WALL,  PANAMA. 

as  they  were  called,  who  chose  to  go  by  ship  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Chagres  river,  then  to  cross  the  Isthmus  to  the  City 
of  Panama,  and  thence  by  ship  again  up  the  Pacific  coast 
to  San  Francisco.  There  were  quite  as  many  dangers  by 
this  route  as  by  the  long  trails  across  the  western  prairies. 
There  were  many  shipwrecks"  on  the  rough  Caribbean  sea, 


PANAMA  RAILROAD   COMPANY  99 

and  hundreds  fell  sick  and  died  in  the  hot  climate  of  the 
Isthmus.  In  the  single  year  of  1852  five  hundred  gold- 
seekers  died  of  cholera  at  Panama. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  regular  line  of  steamers  from 
Panama  City  to  San  Francisco.  When  a  ship  once  reached 
California,  the  crew  was  likely  to  be  seized  with 
the  gold  fever  and  to  run  off  to  the  mines,  leav-  nhfers0^" 
ing  the  captain  with  no  one  to  help  him  take 
his  ship  back  to  Panama.  Had  we  searched  carefully,  as 
we  took  a  promenade  on  the  old  sea-wall  of  the  City  of 
Panama,  we  might  have  found  many  names  and  initials  of 
the  Forty-niners  cut  in  the  moss-covered  stones.  These 
letters  tell  a  pathetic  story  of  the  anxious  men  who  once, 
from  these  very  walls,  looked  eagerly  out  to  sea  in  search 
of  a  returning  ship.  The  long  days  of  waiting,  the  empty 
purses,  the  dreaded  fever  made  Panama  the  grave  of  hun- 
dreds, who  were  never  to  reach  the  gold  mines.  A  large 
trade  sprang  up  on  the  Isthmus,  and  great  quantities  of 
goods  were  shipped  over  this  route  to  California. 

So  it  came  about  that  a  company  of  men  in  New  York 
city  determined  to  build  a  railroad  from  Colon  to  the 
City  of  Panama.  William  Henry  Aspinwall,  John  L. 
Stevens,  and  Henry  Chauncey  were  the  leaders  in  this 
enterprise.  The  right  to  build  it  was  secured  from  the 
government  of  Colombia,  the  route  was  surveyed  not  far 
from  the  old  Spanish  roadway,  and  work  was  begun  in 
1849. 


IOO 


MANY   OBSTACLES 


Since  the  road  was  to  be  but  forty-eight  miles  long  and 
there  were  no  mountains  to  be  crossed,  it  would  not  seem, 
at  first  thought,  like  a  great  task;  but  in  the 
end  it  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  disastrous 
attempts  at  road  building  in  which  American 
energy  and  bravery  have  ever  been  engaged. 

There  were  many  obstacles  at  the  outset.     Panama  was 
a  long   distance   from  railroad   supplies.     Materials   were 


American 
Energy  and 
Bravery 


HAUT  OBISPO  STATION. 


hard  to  get.  Then  there  were  the  jungles  to  be  con- 
quered. It  will  be  almost  impossible  for  us  to  realize  the 
difficulties  that  they  present  to  an  engineering  party.  We 


ON  MANZANILLO   ISLAND  101 

are  told  that  a  party  of  engineers  once  passed  twice  within 
twenty  feet  of  a  high  hill  without  knowing  it,  so  dense  was 
the  tropical  growth. 

To  begin  the  engineering  work,  Colonel  G.  M.  Totten, 
James  L.  Baldwin,  and  a  few  others,  with  a  small  number 
of  native  laborers,  landed  on  Manzanillo  Island, 
where  now  is  the  town  of  Colon.     "  There  was  Totten1 

not  the  least  sign  of  human  life,  civilized  or 
savage,  on  the  island;  nor  was  there  a  space  of  dry  land 
upon  which  to  set  foot,  except  the  narrow  ridge  of  sand 
that  had  been  washed  up  by  the  surf  along  the  reef.  In 
front,  the  sea;  behind,  the  malarial  swamp.  But  they  set 
to  work  to  clear  away  a  space  for  the  purpose  of  erecting 
a  building  to  shelter  themselves,  their  followers,  and  their 
supplies  from  the  sun  and  rain. 

"  They  had  a  schooner  of  two  hundred  tons,  upon  which 
they  had  arrived,  and  on  which  they  lived  for  the  first 
few  months.  Even  after  the  first  house  was  completed 
it  was  found  that  it  was  impossible  to  occupy  it,  on  ac- 
count of  the  swarms  of  mosquitoes,  sand  flies,  and  other 
noxious  insects  that  invaded  it;  while  on  board  the  ves- 
sel the  men  were  tormented  with  myriads  of  cockroaches, 
which  rendered  life  a  burden.  Sickness  was  seldom 
absent  from  the  camp,  while  death  was  a  too  frequent 
visitor.  No  one  escaped  the  calentura,  as  the  jungle  fever 
is  called.  In  a  little  time  the  white  members  of  the 
party  were  the  pale  hue  of  ghosts;  and  even  the  dusky 


102  BATTLE  WITH  THE   JUNGLE 

natives    grew    many    shades    lighter    than    their    natural 
bronze. 

"  Under  these  untoward  circumstances,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  long  rainy  season,  of  which  no  one  of  the  company, 
except  the  natives,  had  any  practical  knowledge,  was 


SCENE  ON  PANAMA  RAILROAD.— BOLIVAR  STREET,  COLON. 

commenced  the  battle  with  tropical  nature  that  was  to  end 
in  triumph  five  weary  years  later." 

James  Baldwin  was  selected  to  survey  the  line  of  the 
road.  "He  organized  a  small  party,  and  made  the  bold 
plunge.  For  a  long  distance  they  were  obliged  to  wade  in 
water  waist  deep,  and  to  hew  their  way  through  the  dense 


A  DARING  ENGINEER  103 

jungle.     It  is  said  that  Baldwin  carried  his  noonday  luncheon 

in  his  hat,  during  the  progress  of  that  part  of  the  survey, 

and   ate    it    standing  amid    envious  alligators 

and  water  snakes.     Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  Baldwin 

doubtful  if  a  more  daring  feat  of  engineering 

has   been   performed.     Think   of   it!    day   after   scorching 

day,  shut  in  by  impenetrable  growth  of  jungle,  each  weary 

foot  of  which  must  be  cut  down  before  any  advance  could 

be  made,  breathing  air  laden  with  poison,  and  tormented 

by  millions  of  insects!     The  wonder  is  that  any  man  could 

have  had  such  courage  and  endurance." 

Not  far  from  Colon  was  the  great  Black  Swamp.  Across 
this  it  was  necessary  to  build  the  line.  Some  of  us  may 
know  what  that  means.  For  miles  no  hard 

Obstacles 

bottom  could  be  found  beneath  the  soft  mud. 
Tons  on  tons  of  rock  were  dumped  upon  it  and  in  a  few 
hours  sank  out  of  sight.     This  swamp  was  obstacle  enough 
to  force  less  determined  men  to  quit  the  work. 

The  next  obstacle  was  the  Chagres  river.  The  route  of 
the  line  crossed  it  at  several  points  and  there  the  terrific 
floods  made  railroad  building  next  to  impossible.  The 
water  often  rose  ten  feet  or  more  above  the  tracks  and 
swept  away  the  results  of  months  of  labor. 

Another  obstacle  was  the  difficulty  of  securing  good  labor- 
ers. The  Panama  native  has  a  way  of  working  one  day 
and  then  of  loafing  for  the  next  week.  When  he  works,  he 
does  not  accomplish  much.  So  laborers  had  to  be  imported 


104 


CHINESE  LABORERS 


from  abroad.  The  Company,  as  an  experiment,  brought 
over  a  shipload  of  eight  hundred  Chinamen.  ' '  They  immedi- 
ately began  to  fall  sick.  In  less  than  two  months  after 
their  arrival  there  was  hardly  one  of  the  original  number 
fit  to  wield  a  pick  or  shovel.  They  gave  themselves  up  to 


FLOODS  ON  PANAMA  RAILROAD — 1906. 

despair  and  sought  death  by  whatever  means  came  nearest 
to  hand.  Some  sat  on  the  shore  and  awaited  the  rising  tide, 
nor  did  they  stir  until  the  sea  swallowed  them.  Some 
hanged  or  strangled  themselves  by  their  cues.  The  rem- 
nant, fewer  than  two  hundred,  sick  and  useless,  were  shipped 
to  Jamaica." 


BATTLE  WITH   DISEASE  105 

Irish  laborers  were  tried  with  no  better  results.  Finally 
a  gang  of  several  thousand  negroes  from  Jamaica,  and  a 
few  whites  from  various  sources  finished  the  work. 

We  may  already  suspect  the  greatest  enemy  with  which 
the  railroad  had  to  fight.  More  serious  than  all  other  ob- 
stacles to  any  great  work  in  Panama  is  the 

.        .  .  Disease 

tropical  climate  with  its  tropical  diseases.  Not 
only  does  the  steaming  hot  weather  suck  the  strength  out  of 
men  who  are  accustomed  to  cooler  lands,  but  it  leaves  them 
too  weak  to  throw  off  the  diseases  that  lurk  in  the  filth  of 
the  cities  and  the  deadly  air  of  the  swamps.  Consumption, 
typhoid,  malaria,  plague,  and  yellow  fever,  cut  down  the 
railroad's  workmen  until  the  wonder  is  that  the  road  was 
ever  completed. 

"Beyond  the  Chagres  river 

Are  the  paths  that  lead  to  death — 
To  the  fever's  deadly  breezes, 
To  malaria's  poisonous  breath!" 

It  has  been  said  that  one  life  was  sacrificed  for  every 
cross-tie  on  the  railroad  track.  This  is,  no  doubt,  untrue. 
The  total  loss  of  life  was  about  2,500.  It  was  a  fight  of 
American  daring  against  terrible  odds.  But  such  engi- 
neers as  Colonel  George  Totten  and  James  Baldwin  were 
superior  to  all  the  evil  powers  of  the  jungle,  and  the  road 
was  built. 

Eight  million  dollars, — five  years  of  exhausting  labor, — 


io6  THE  RAILROAD   COMPLETED 

over  two  thousand  lives, — that  was  the  price  paid  for  forty- 
eight  miles  of  railroad  away  off  in  Panama. 

On  the  27th  of  January,  1855,  a  strange  sight  was  seen  in 
the  City  of  Panama, — the  first  locomotive  that  ever  crossed 


"HERE  AT  LAST  WAS  A  RAILROAD  ACROSS  THE  ISTHMUS." 

the  American  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean, — and   this, 
too,  fourteen  years  before  it  was  possible  to  cross  the  United 
States  by  rail  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 

First  Trans- 
continental Here  at  last  was  a  railroad  across  the  Isth- 
mus.     Shiploads    of    goods    headed    for    the 
Pacific  need  no  longer  be  sent  on  the  long  journey  around 
South  America.    Commerce  came  to  Panama  at  once.    Even 


SUCCESS  107 

before  it  was  completed,  the  road  had  taken  in  more  than 
two  million  dollars.  It  soon  made  fortunes  for  its  builders, 
and  has  paid  handsomely  ever  since.  In  the  first  forty-seven 
years  this  little  railroad  earned  nearly  $38,000,000  of  clear 
profit  for  its  owners. 

Surely  a  railroad  can  have  a  story  as  romantic  as  the 
bloody  career  of  a  gang  of  pirates,  even  though  led  by  Henry 
Morgan. 


CHAPTER   IX 

WATERWAYS   ACROSS   CENTRAL  AMERICA 

In  the  first  part  of  our  story  of  Panama  we  learned  that 
the  greatest  disappointment  of  Columbus's  life  was  the  fact 
that  he  could  find  no  waterway  through  Central  America  to 
Asia.  It  will  not  be  worth  our  while  to  study  very  carefully 
all  the  efforts  made  since  his  time  by  Spain,  Scotland,  Eng- 
land, and  France  to  find  or  to  build  such  a  waterway.  We 
are  naturally  more  interested  in  what  the  United  States  has 
done  at  Panama.  But  we  shall  be  more  proud  of  our  own 
country,  if  we  see  first  what  others  have  done  and  why  they 
failed. 

That  Columbus  failed  to  find  a,  waterway  did  not  entirely 
discourage  the  Spaniards.  The  more  they  learned  of  Cen- 
tral America,  the  more  desirous  were  they  to 

Fatee*  fin(l  or  to  k^d  a  wa.v  f°r  shiPs  through  it. 

Columbus  had  been  dead  only  fourteen  years, 
when  the  Spanish  king,  Charles  the  Fifth,  gave  orders  to  all 
his  governors  in  America  to  make  a  most  careful  survey  for 
this  purpose.  His  orders  were  obeyed  and  many  explorers 
were  sent  out.  Of  course,  no  waterway  was  found.  There 
wasn't  any.  And  we  need  to  follow  the  work  of  but  one 

explorer.     This  was  Gonzales. 

1 08 


GONZALES  109 

He  crossed  the  Isthmus  at  Panama  in  1521  and  sailed  up 
the  west  coast  to  Nicaragua.  Here  a  landing  was  made 
with  one  hundred  men.  Gonzales  had  gone 
inland  a  few  miles  when,  to  his  surprise,  he  Nicaragua 
came  to  the  shore  of  a  great  fresh-water  lake. 
This  was  Lake  Nicaragua.  It  is  marked  as  No.  4  on  Map 
V,  p.  94  and  it  is  very  desirable  that  we  should  see  exactly 
where  it  lies.  The  lake  is  one  hundred  and  seventeen 
miles  long,  or  about  half  as  long  as  our  Lake  Erie,  and 
covers  three  thousand  square  miles.  Gonzales  sailed  up 
the  lake  to  its  outlet,  the  San  Juan  river,  and  then  down 
this  stream  to  the  Atlantic.  Here,  surely,  was  an  easy  way 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, — only  one  hundred  and 
seventy  miles  and  largely  by  water.  It  seemed  as  if  a  canal 
might  be  built  at  Nicaragua. 

Spanish  surveyors  also  declared,  at  this  time,  that  a  canal 
could  be  built  across  Panama.  So,  for  a  time,  the  Spaniards 
had  high  hopes  of  building  a  canal. 

It  was  not  long  after  this,  however,  that  Spain  came  to  feel 
that  if  easy  ways  across  Central  America  could  be  found  or 
built,  other  nations  might  steal  away  from  her  the  rich  pos- 
sessions in  the  New  World.  So  the  Spanish  king  forbade 
any  further  surveys.  And  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
Spain  did  all  in  her  power  to  prevent  other  nations  from 
becoming  interested  in  a  canal  at  Nicaragua  or  at  Panama. 

But  no  one  feared  the  anger  of  Spain,  as  we  know  from 
the  stories  of  English  pirates.  Only  a  few  years  after  Henry 


no  WILLIAM  PATERSON 

Morgan  destroyed  Panama,  a  famous  Scotchman  named 

William  Paterson  planned  to  get  possession  of  Panama  by 

planting  a  large   Scotch  colony  on  the  Gulf 

p'altoe  °f    Darien    (MaP    V)'        He    thought,    tOO,    that 

if  the  colony  was  a  success,  Scotland  might  dig 
a  canal  across  the  Isthmus  at  that  point  (No.  2,  Map  V). 

What  a  pitiful  failure  it  was!  In  1698  twelve  hundred 
Scotchmen  set  out  in  five  ships  and  planted  a  colony  at 
Darien.  Others  followed  and  everything  looked  promis- 
ing. But  they  had  not  counted  on  the  climate.  Fever 
came,  as  it  had  done  so  many  times  before.  Soon  more 
than  two  thousand  were  dead  and  vast  sums  of  money  had 
been  spent.  Suddenly  a  hostile  Spanish  fleet  appeared. 
The  few  survivors  ran  away  in  defeat  to  Scotland.  There 
was  to  be  no  Scotch  canal. 

For  more  than  one  hundred  years  the  failure  of  Pater- 
son's  plan  discouraged  any  more  such  efforts. 
FaUure  But  interest  was  still  alive  in  the  idea  of  a 

canal  and  many  people  yet  hoped  to  see  it  built. 

Some  of  us  have  seen,  or  may  sometime  see,  a  certain 
splendid  monument  in  one  of  the  squares  in  the  city  of 
London.  Four  massive  lions  guard  a  beautiful  column 
which  rises  high  in  air.  On  its  top  stands  the  statue  of  the 
greatest  admiral  that  ever  walked  the  deck  of  an  English 
battleship.  All  England  delights  to  honor  the  memory  of 
her  great  sea-captain,  who  died  in  his  country's  service. 

Few  persons  know,  perhaps,  that  twenty-five  years  before 


NELSON  MEMORIAL 


in 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Under-wood. 

"FOUR  MASSIVE  LIONS  GUARD  A  BEAUTIFUL  COLUMN." 


ii2  A  NARROW  ESCAPE 

his  wonderful  battle  with  the  French  fleet  at  Trafalgar, 
he  nearly  lost  his  life  in  Nicaragua.  He  was  only  young 
Captain  Nelson  then,  and  had  been  sent  with  some  English 
ships  and  men  to  drive  the  Spanish  out  of  Nicaragua  and 
seize  the  lake.  England  had  determined  to  get  control  of 
what  was  then  thought  to  be  the  best  route  for  a  canal. 

Nelson  succeeded  in  whipping  the  Spanish  ships  that 
were  sent  against  him.  But  the  tropical  fever  again  fought 
in  behalf  of  Spain,  and  that  he  could  not  whip.  The  crew 
of  his  ship,  the  Ilinchinbrook,  was  suddenly  taken  sick, 
and  in  a  few  days  only  ten  were  left  alive  out  of  two  hundred. 
The  captain's  own  health,  also,  was  injured  for  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life. 

England  did  not  despair.  For  many  years  she  continued 
to  make  surveys  at  Nicaragua.  Until  very  recently  she  still 
had  plans  for  a  canal. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   FRENCH  AT   PANAMA 

On  a  certain  day  in  1882,  up  among  the  hills  eleven  miles 
back  of  the  city  of  Panama,  an  unusual  sight  could  have 
been  seen.  All  about,  the  jungle  had  been  cut  away,  the 
land  cleared,  and  tracks,  cars,  engines,  and  machinery  for 
digging  had  been  set  up.  Some  of  them  were  actually  in 
operation.  Engines  were  puffing,  men  were  shouting,  gangs 
of  workmen  were  hurrying  here  and  there.  Smoke,  too, 
could  be  seen  at  points  down  the  valley,  and  there  were 
signs  of  activity  everywhere. 

Amid  all  this  commotion  a  company  of  a  few  hundred 
persons  was  gathered.  No  such  company  had  ever  met 
before  on  the  Isthmus.  There  was  the  Bishop  from  the 
Cathedral  of  Panama,  and  with  him  a  number  of  the  lead- 
ing citizens  of  that  town.  There  were  some  Americans 
also,  and  Europeans  of  different  nationalities,  especially 
Frenchmen.  These  all  had  the  appearance  of  spectators 
much  interested  in  something  unusual  that  was  about  to 
happen. 

The  center  of  the  group  was  a  little  white-haired  man, 
laughing  and  joking,  and  full  of  remarkable  energy  and 
good  humor.  Except  for  his  white  hair  he  appeared  to  be 

"3 


THE   CANAL  BUILDER 


De  Lesseps 


not  over  fifty  years  old.  Certainly  no  one  would  have 
guessed  that  he  had  passed  his  seventy-sixth  birthday.  We 
are  told  that  he  would  often  "ride  a  fiery 
horse  all  day  over  rough  country, — then  dance 
all  night  like  a  boy,  and  the  next  day  be  as  'fresh  as  a 
daisy."'  He  seemed  now  to  be  the  chief  in  command  of 

all  the  work. 

This  man  was  none  other 
than  Count  Ferdinand  de 
Lesseps,  and  the  work  actu- 
ally going  on  was  the  dig- 
ging of  a  French  canal 
across  Panama. 

The  company  was  as- 
sembled to  witness  the 
formal  opening  of  the  great 
work.  The  Bishop  was  to 
give  it  his  blessing,  and 
a  tremendous  charge  of 
dynamite  was  to  be  ex- 
ploded, to  show  how  easy 
was  to  be  the  task  of  cut- 
ting through  the  rock.  An  eye-witness  has  described  the 
scene  for  us.  "The  blessing  had  been  pronounced,  the 
champagne,  duly  iced,  was  wraiting  to  cool  the  swelter  of  that 
tropic  sun,  as  soon  as  the  explosion  "went  off."  There  the 
crowd  stood,  breathless,  ears  stopped,  eyes  blinking,  half 


COUNT  FERDINAND  DE  LESSEPS. 


ISTHMUS   OF   SUEZ 


MAP  VI. — DE  LESSEPS  AND  THE  ISTHMUS  or  SUEZ. 


n6  AN  UNLUCKY  EXPLOSION 

in  terror  lest  this  artificial  earthquake  might  involve  gen- 
eral destruction.  But  there  was  no  explosion!  It  wouldn't 
go !  Then  a  humorous  sense  of  relief  stole  upon  the  crowd. 
With  one  accord  everybody  exclaimed  "Good  gracious!" 
and  hurried  away,  lest  after  all  the  dynamite  should  see 
fit  to  explode." 

So,  after  much  merriment  and  feasting,  the  company 
broke  up  and  departed.  As  we  look  back  upon  that  day's 
doings,  which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  French  enter- 
prise, there  seems  something  unlucky  about  that  charge 
of  dynamite  that  refused  to  explode. 

But  who  was  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps?  And  how  did  the 
French  come  to  be  building  a  canal  at  Panama?  De  Les- 
seps was  a  Frenchman  who  had  lived  for  many 
and  the*61  years  in  Egypt.  There  he  was  but  a  few  miles 
isthmus  of  from  that  Other  great  isthmus  of  the  world, — 

Suez 

at  Suez, — where  a  strip  of  low  land,  less  than 
one  hundred  miles  wide,  connects  the  two  continents  of  Asia 
and  Africa.  As  Panama  blocked  the  most  important  route 
of  commerce  in  the  New  World,  so  did  the  Isthmus  of  Suez 
in  the  Old  World. 

For  ages  there  had  been  a  demand  for  a  canal  between 
the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean,  and  many  wise  men  had 
studied  the  problem.  To  be  of  any  value  the  canal  must  be 
what  is  called  a  "ship  canal,"  that  is,  large  enough  for  ocean 
vessels.  But  a  ship  canal  one  hundred  miles  long!  No  such 
had  ever  been  built.  The  difficulties  seemed  too  great. 


A   CANAL  AT   SUEZ 


117 


Though  De  Lesseps  was  not  an  engineer  of  much  expe- 
rience, he  was  very  ambitious  and  anxious  to  connect  his 
name  with  some  great  undertaking.  He  could  see  that  the 
task  of  building  a  canal  at  Suez  was  really  simple.  It 


Copyright  by  Under-wood  &•  Underwood. 

SHIP  PASSING  THROUGH  THE  SUEZ  CANAL. 


would  require  much  money  and  patience,  but  the  digging 
would  be  mostly  through  sand.  There  was  little  rock,  and 
there  were  almost  no  hills.  De  Lesseps  determined  that 
he  would  be  the  man  to  build  that  ship  canal.  It  was  a 
daring  scheme,  indeed,  but  he  went  to  work  at  once. 

In  1858  a  company  was  formed.     Men  had  confidence  in 


n8  ONE  ISTHMUS   CONQUERED 

De  Lesseps  and  money  was  secured.  In  1859  work  was 
begun  and  progressed  steadily  and  successfully  for  the  next 
ten  years.  Before  the  world  fully  realized  it,  Africa  was  no 
longer  connected  with  Asia  by  land.  The  canal  was  com- 
pleted. The  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  could  flow  into 
the  Red  Sea  and  a  new  route  was  secured  from  Europe  to 
Asia. 

The  Suez  Canal  is  ninety-nine  miles  long,  thirty-one  feet 

deep,  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  wide  at  the  bottom,  and 

four  hundred  and  twenty  feet  at  the  water's 

Suez  Canal 

surface.  Great  electric  lights  were  placed  along 
the  banks  and  ships  can  pass  through  it  by  night  as  well  as 
by  day.  The  time  of  transit  is  from  fourteen  to  eighteen 
hours. 

The  cost  was  $100,000,000  or  about  $1,000,000  for  each 
mile.  But  those  who  had  dared  to  put  their  money  into  this 
rash  enterprise  were  richly  rewarded,  for  enormous  profits 
were  made.  Nearly  four  thousand  ships  now  pass  through 
the  canal  each  year,  and  the  Company  receives  an  income 
from  tolls  of  about  $25,000,000. 

One  of  the  two  great  isthmuses  of  the  world  was  conquered. 
De  Lesseps  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  fame.  All  Europe 
rang  with  his  praises.  No  task  seemed  too  difficult  for  this 
successful  man. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  he  looked  longingly  across  the 
Atlantic  toward  that  other  great  isthmus  at  Panama.  Nor 
are  we  surprised  to  find  him  laying  plans  in  1877  to  do 


FRENCH  PANAMA   CANAL   COMPANY  119 

in  the  New  World  what  he  had  done  in  the  Old.     It  need 

be  only  a  forty  mile  canal  at  Panama.     To  be  sure,  others 

had  tried  and  failed,  but  was  he  not  the  very 

man   to   win?    When   he   declared  that  "the      a^d  Panama 

Panama   Canal   will    be    more   easily  •  begun, 

finished,  and  maintained  than  the  Suez  Canal,"  rich  and 

poor  alike  were  eager  to  furnish  money. 

So  in  1879  the  French  Panama  Canal  Company  was 
formed.  The  Atlantic  and  Pacific  were  to  be  directly  con- 
nected by  a  canal  twenty-eight  feet  deep.  It  was  to  be 
built  at  a  cost  of  $214,000,000,  and  to  be  finished  in  eight 
years.  A  great  force  of  workmen  was  secured,  machinery 
purchased,  and  everything  made  ready.  The  Bishop  blessed 
the  work,  as  we  have  seen,  and  the  canal  was  begun. 

A  whole  book  might  be  filled  with  the  story  of  the  French 
Canal.     For  us  three  words  will  explain  what 
happened.  £££* 

Disease. — It  seems  as  if  De  Lesseps  and  his 
associates  should  have  known  enough  about  Panama  to  have 
reckoned  with  the  old  enemy, — Yellow  Fever.  They  did 
build  expensive  hospitals, — one  at  Panama  City  cost  nearly 
$6,000,000, — another  at  Colon,  $1,400,000;  but  they  were 
badly  managed  and  the  sick  were  poorly  cared  for.  We 
have,  no  doubt,  already  seen  the  yellow  fever  ward  of  the 
hospital  at  Panama  City.  In  this  one  ward  twelve  hundred 
patients  died.  Worse  still,  while  they  tried  to  cure  the  sick, 
the  French  did  little  to  prevent  sickness.  The  towns  were 


120 


DISEASE  AND   WASTE 


left  as  filthy  as  ever,  the  water  supply  remained  poor,  and  the 
laborers  continued  to  fall  ill.  Out  of  a  total  of  86,800  work- 
men, 52,000  were  treated  for  sickness,  The  total  deaths 
during  the  twenty-three  years  of  French  work  were  6,283. 


FEVER  WARD— FRENCH  HOSPITAL,  PANAMA  CITY. 

Waste. — The  French  had  failed  to  make  a  careful  study 
of  the  difficulties  before  they  began  the  work.  The  Panama 
Canal  was  far  harder  to  build  than  the  Suez  Canal.  Money 
was  poured  out  like  water.  But  poor  plans  and  poor  engi- 
neers made  the  canal  grow  very  slowly.  Waste  and  extrav- 
agance were  seen  on  all  sides.  Yet  glowing  stories  of  great 
progress  were  sent  home  to  France.  Newspapers  were 


DISHONESTY 


121 


bribed  to  make  false  reports.  For  several  years  the  French 
people  were  deceived.  The  canal  was  soon  to  be  completed, 
they  were  told,  and  they  continued  to  furnish  huge  sums  of 
money  for  the  work. 
Theft.  —  De  Les- 
seps  was  not,  per- 
haps, an  intention- 
ally dishonest  man. 
But  he  was  an  old 
man  and  unfit  to 
guide  so  tremen- 
dous a  work.  Many 
men  who  worked 
with  him  were  dis- 
honest and  by  them 
he  was  deceived. 
Not  only  in  France 
but  also  in  Panama 
large  sums  of  money  Copyrisht  by  Wm- H' Rau' 

,      ,    FRENCH  MACHINE  WORKING  ON  A  BANK  IN  PANAMA 

went  into  the  pock-  CANAL. 

ets  of  those  in  power. 

It  is  said  that  fully  one  third  of  all  the  money  raised  was 
practically  stolen  from  the  treasury.  This  spirit  of  corrup- 
tion made  its  way  down  from  the  higher  officials  through  all 
classes  even  to  the  lowest.  Every  form  of  vice  flourished 
on  the  Isthmus. 

Disease,  waste,  and  theft  went  on  for  seven  years.     Of 


122 


[.00,000,000 


course,  much  good  digging  was  done,  but  at  the  end  of  that 
time  not  over  two  fifths  of  the  whole  work  was  completed. 
Nearly  four  hundred  million  dollars  had  been  raised.  A 


DE  LESSEPS  PALACE. 

large  part  of  it1  was  secured  from  French  farmers  and  day- 
laborers,  who  believed  in  the  great  De  Lesseps  and  turned 
over  to  him  their  little  savings.  About  one  third  of  this 
enormous  sum  was  wasted,  one  third  stolen,  and  one  third 
actually  spent  on  the  canal.  What  a  dreadful  story  of  mis- 
management !  Had  all  the  $400,000,000  been  properly  spent, 
the  canal  might  have  been  finished. 
At  last  the  whole  world  came  to  know  what  had  hap- 


A  NATIONAL  SCANDAL 


123 


pened.  It  was  clear  that  De  Lesseps  and  the  French 
Panama  Canal  Company  had  failed.  Rage  and  excite- 
ment spread  over  France.  Thousands  of  per- 
sons had  sunk  all  their  money  in  the  great 
scheme,  and  now  found  themselves  ruined. 
The  end  had  come,  no  canal  was  built,  the  money  was  gone. 
Then  a  long  trial  was  held  to  find  out  who  was  to  blame. 
Many  leading  men  in  France  were  accused  of  sharing  in  the 


French 
Failure 


PORTION  OF  CANAL  COMPLETED  BY  THE  FRENCH. 

X. 

robbery.  Several  committed  suicide  rather  than  face  the 
angry  French  people.  During  the  trial  a  number  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Company  were  sentenced  to  pay  heavy  fines  or 


I24 


AMONG  THE   RUINS 


DEATH   OF  DE  LESSEPS  125 

to  spend  years  in  prison.  The  aged  De  Lesseps,  now  broken 
in  health  and  reputation,  was  unable  to  stand  the  strain. 
When  he  was  sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment,  he  fell 
into  an  unconscious  state,  his  mind  gave  way,  and  within  a 
few  months  her,died  in  a  mad-house. 

In  our  visit  to  Panama  we  shall  go  out  to  see  the  wreck 
of  the  French  work.     Had  we  stayed  long  at  Colon,  when  we 


FRENCH  DREDGES  SUNK  IN  Rio  GRANDE. 

first  landed,  we  might  have  seen  the  expensive  dwelling  built 
for  De  Lesseps  and  his  associates.  It  is  known  as  the  De 
Lesseps  Palace,  and  shows  how  French  money  was  need- 
lessly wasted. 


126 


RUINED   MACHINERY 


All  along  the  route  between  Colon  and  Panama  City  are 
bits  of  the  canal  partially  completed.  For  years,  in  the 
great  ditches,  the  steam  excavators  stood  silent,  just  as  they 
were  left  when  the  French  work  stopped.  In  the  rivers 


"THE  JUNGLE  HAS  CREPT  IN  UPON  THEM." 

the  dredges  rotted  at  their  wharves  or  sank  to  the  bottom. 
Here,  for  instance,  in  the  Rio  Grande  are  two  dredges  with 
their  tops  just  sticking  out  of  the  water.  Each  cost  many 
thousands  of  dollars.  They  are  now  worthless.  Ten 
thousand  cars,  six  thousand  wagons,  two  hundred  miles  of 
track,  with  hundreds  of  locomotives,  derricks,  excavators, 
and  dredges  were  left  idle. 


STATUE   OF  DE  LESSEPS 


127 


How  sad  a  sight  the  long  lines  of  locomotives  present. 
Black  and  rusty,  they  are  fast  going  to  ruin  within  sight 
of  the  very  spot  on  which  De  Lesseps  and  his  friends  so 
gaily  opened  work  on  the  canal.  The  jungle  has  crept  in 
upon  them.  Nature 
is  trying  to  hide 
the  pitiful  signs  of 
French  failure. 

The  world  has 
long  ago  decided 
that  De  Lesseps 
himself  was  only 
partially  responsible 
for  the  wreck  at 
Panama.  He  at- 
tempted more  than 
he  was  able  to  do. 
We  can  well  afford 
to  forget  his  failure 
there  and  to  re- 
member him  only 
as  the  man  who  planned  and  completed  the  canal  at  Suez, 
—the  longest  ship  canal  in  the  world.  At  the  mouth  of 
that  canal  his  statue  stands  looking  out  over  the  waters  of 
the  Mediterranean.  His  right  hand  is  outstretched,  as  if 
inviting  the  ships  of  the  world  to  enter  his  great  waterway. 


Copyright  by  Win.  H.  Rau. 

DE  LESSEPS  STATUE — SUEZ  CANAL. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   PANAMA 

The   line   American    battleship   whose    picture    appears 

opposite  holds  a  splendid  record  in  our  navy.     When  war 

was  about  to  break  out  between  the  United 

The  Oregon  . 

States  and  Spam  in  1898,  this  vessel  was  in 
the  harbor  of  San  Francisco,  on  the  Pacific.  As  Spain's 
fleet  was  expected  to  attack  our  eastern  coast,  and  the 
Oregon  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  ships  in  the  navy, 
she  was  needed  in  the  Atlantic.  Orders  were  sent  to  Cap- 
tain Clark  on  March  19,  to  leave  San  Francisco  at  once 
for  the  long  trip  around  thr  southern  point  of  South  America 
and  north  to  join  the  Atlantic  fleet  in  the  West  Indies. 
None- of  pur  ships  had  ever  made  so  long  a  trip  or  one  so 
full  of  perils.  If  she  came  through  it  safely,  there  was  no 
certainty  that  she  would  still  be  in  fighting  trim.  Thirteen 
thousand  and  four  hundred  miles  and  all  at  record  speed! 
We  all  remember  the  pleasure  and  enthusiasm  that  spread 
over  the  country  when  the  great  ship  joined  the  Atlantic 
fleet  without  the  slightest  damage  to  her  machinery  and 
with  her  guns  and  men  ready  to  give  battle  to  the  Spaniards. 
The  trip  had  required  more  than  two  full  months.  Had 

there  been  a  Panama  canal,  the  journey  would  have  been 

128 


AN  OBJECT  LESSON  129 

but  four  thousand  six  hundred  miles.  It  could  have  been 
done  in  fifteen  days  and  no  haste  would  have  been  neces- 
sary. Americans  were  more  than  ever  roused  to  the  value  of 
a  canal.  This  remarkable  voyage  had  been  an  object  lesson. 


Copyright  by  IVm.  H.  Rau. 


BATTLESHIP  "  OREGON." 


But  it  was  not  alone  the  voyage  of  the  Oregon  that  inter- 
ested our  people  in  a  canal  across  Central  America.  If 
there  were  a  canal,  no  nation  of  the  world 
probably  would  use  it  more  than  we,  both  in 
times  of  war  and  in  times  of  peace.  For  more 
than  seventy-five  years  the  United  States  has  been  interested 
in  the  canal.  We  read  that  away  back  in  1825  Henry  Clay 


American 
Interest  in 
a  Canal 


i3o  "THE   CANAL   SHALL  BE   BUILT" 

declared  it  to  be  his  firm  belief  that  the  United  States  should 
build  it.  From  that  time  to  this  hundreds  of  other  public 
men  have  expressed  the  same  feeling.  Both  President 
Jackson  and  President  Grant  urged  Congress  to  consider 
the  matter.  Many  thorough  surveys  of  the  different  routes 
have  been  made  from  time  to  time  by  American  engineers. 

But  until  recent  years  the  rich  men  of  America,  and  the 
American  government  itself,  were  busy  developing  our  own 
great  lands.  Mines,  oil  wells,  factories,  railroads,  battle- 
ships, and  scores  of  other  necessary  things,  cost  immense 
sums  of  money.  There  was  little  time  or  money  left  for 
a  doubtful  enterprise  in  Central  America.  So  we  were 
obliged  to  look  on,  while  other  nations  tried  to  build  a 
canal  and  failed.  No  people  were  more  interested  than 
ourselves  in  De  Lesseps's  plans.  When  the  French  failed 
and  England '  seemed  unwilling  to  try  again,  it  was  clear 
that  no  canal  would  be  built  unless  by  Americans.  And 
so  it  finally  came  about  at  the  close  of  the  Spanish  war, 
that  our  government  decided  that  a  canal  must  be  built  and 
owned  by  the  United  States.  As  President  Roosevelt  said, 
"this  is  the  greatest  engineering  work  the  world  has  yet 
seen,  but  the  canal  shall  be  built!" 

Until  1903  American  engineers  favored  the  Nicaragua 
route  (No.  4,  Map  V,  p.  94).  We  cannot  here  mention  all 
the  reasons  for  this.  Questions  of  climate  and  floods,  of 
distance  and  ease  of  digging,  of  storms  and  earthquakes, 
had  to  be  considered.  The  canal  at  Nicaragua  would  be  one 


RIVAL   ROUTES  131 

hundred  and  twenty  miles  longer  than  the  Panama  canal. 
But  one  hundred  and  seventeen  of  this  would  be  through 
the    great    Lake    Nicaragua.     Then,  too,  the 
San  Juan  river  could  be  used  in  part;  so  that  Route™ 

only  about  twenty-seven  miles  would  actu- 
ally have  to  be  dug  at  Nicaragua.  On  the  other  hand 
the  floods  in  the  San  Juan  river  were  as  severe  as  in  the 
river  Chagres  at  Panama,  and  the  frequent  storms  on 
Lake  Nicaragua  presented  a  difficulty.  It  was  also  thought 
that  earthquakes  are  much  more  severe  in  Nicaragua  than 
in  Panama,  and  might  damage  the  canal  or  even  destroy 
it.  At  Panama  were  two  good  harbors,  a  railroad  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  a  canal  already  partially  completed,  and 
an  immense  quantity  of  machinery  of  all  sorts. 

In  fact,  much  could  be  said  in  favor  of  each  route,  and 
much  was  said,  not  only  in  Congress  but  also  in  our  news- 
papers and  in  private  discussions  all  over  the  country. 
Finally,  however,  President  Roosevelt  and  Congress  de- 
cided that  if  the  French  Panama  Canal  Company  would 
sell  all  they  had  left  at  Panama  for  a  reasonable  price,  and 
if  we  could  buy  a  strip  of  land  across  Panama,  the  canal 
should  be  built  at  that  point. 

The  French  Company  wanted  $90,000,000  for  its  prop- 
erty but  at  last  agreed  to  accept  $40,000,000.  The  Republic 
of  Panama  in  February,  1904,  sold  to  the  United  States  for 
the  sum  of  $10,000,000  a  strip  of  land  ten  miles  wide  and 
fifty  miles  long  extending  across  the  Isthmus  from  the  At- 


i32  UNITED   STATES  TAKES  POSSESSION 

lantic  to  the  Pacific.  This  strip  is  now  known  as  the  Canal 
Zone,  and  it  is  controlled  absolutely  by  the  United  States 
provided  we  build  and  operate  a  canal. 

Although  an  outlay  of  $50,000,000  was  necessary  before  a 
shovelful  of  dirt  was  moved,  the  United  States  was  now  ready 
to  build  a  canal  at  Panama. 

On  May  4,  1904,  President  Roosevelt,  in  behalf  of  the 
American  Government  and  people,  took  possession  of  the 
Canal  Zone  and  all  it  contained,  except  the 
zone°anal  cities  of  Colon  and  Panama.  These  are  in  the 
Zone  but  are  still  a  part  of  the  Republic  of 
Panama.  The  area  of  the  Canal  Zone  is  about  five  hundred 
square  miles  or  about  one  quarter  the  size  of  the  little  state 
of  Delaware.  As  we  shall  see,  the  canal  is  to  run  directly 
through  it  from  end  to  end.  An  Isthmian  Canal  Commission 
was  appointed  and  the  Hon.  William  H.  Taft,  then  Secretary 
of  War,  was  directed  to  supervise  the  work.  Major- General 
George  W.  Davis  was  made  Governor  of  the  Canal  Zone. 

A  new  and  interesting  piece  of  land  was  thus  added  to  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  (Map  VII).  It  is,  as  we  have 
said,  50  miles  long  and  10  miles  wide.  In  it  is  a  population 
of  over  50,000  persons.  There  are  twenty-five  small  towns 
and  a  number  of  camps  for  workmen.  The  American  port 
of  the  city  of  Colon  is  called  Cristobal,  of  the  City  of  Pan- 
ama, Ancon.  Between  these  two  ends  of  the  Zone  the  prin- 
cipal towns  are  Gatun,  Gorgona,  Bas  Obispo,  Empire, 
Culebra,  and  Pedro  Miguel. 


GOOD   GOVERNMENT   ESTABLISHED 


133 


It  was  no  small  task  to  establish  a  good  government  for 
all  these  towns  and  people.     There  must  Be  courts,  prisons 
and    police,   a  fire    department,   post    offices, 
schools,  and  all  those  things  that  would  add      ^^ 
to  the  safety  and  welfare  of  those  who  were 
to  dig  the  canal. 

Colombian  money,  for  instance,  was  still  (1903)  in  use  on 
the  Isthmus.    The  standard  was  the  peso  (pa'so).     In  name. 


MAP  VII. — THE  CANAL  ZONE. 

at  least,  it  was  the  same  as  our  American  dollar.  But  its 
value  was  less  than  one  cent.  Imagine  taking  a  Colom- 
bian $5  bill  to  a  bank  and  getting  in  exchange  for  it  an 
American  nickel.  An  amusing  story  is  told  by  a  gentle- 
man from  New  York,  who  invited  the  United  States  consul 
to  a  dinner  at  a  hotel  in  the  City  of  Panama.  When  the 
meal  was  over  he  found  that  it  had  cost  him  $1,400  in  Co- 


THE  AMERICAN   WAY 


COINS  AND   STAMPS  135 

lombian  money,  and  was  not  much  of  a  dinner  at  that. 
Our  gold  dollar  is  now  the  standard  money  in  the  Canal 
Zone,  though  coins  of  the  Republic  of  Panama  are  also 
used.  The  Balboa  is  the  standard  Panama  coin.  It  is 
of  silver,  about  the  size  of  our  own  silver  dollar,  and  worth 
fifty  cents. 


POLICE  STATION — ANCON. 

When  writing  letters  home  from  Panama  we  may  now 
use  the  American  post  offices  of  the  Canal  Zone,  but  the 
letters  will  carry  the  Panama  stamps,  with  the  words  Canal 
Zone  printed  across  the  face. 

Before  the  Americans  came  to  Panama  fires  were  very 


136  FIRE   STATIONS 

common  in  the  towns,  especially  in  Colon  and  Panama 
City.  There  were  no  regular  fire  departments,  and  the 
volunteer  fire  companies  were  of  little  value.  The  firemen 
could  not  afford  to  leave  their  regular  employment  and 
when  the  fire  bells  rang  they  were,  of  course,  scattered  about 
in  various  parts  of  the  town.  Nor  did  they  at  once  run 
to  the  scene  of  the  fire,  but  seemed  more  interested  in  first 
exchanging  their  working  clothes  for  the  gay,  red  suits  of 
which  they  were  very  proud.  Meanwhile  the  fire  had  done 
much  damage. 

In  Cristobal  we  perhaps  saw  one  of  the  first-class  fire  sta- 
tions established  in  the  Zone  by  the  Canal  Commission.  It 
is  in  every  way  as  good  as  we  have  at  home.  Safety  from 
bad  fires  is  now  assured. 

One  hundred  and  sixty  policemen  keep  order  in  the  Zone. 
We  are  told  that  they  are  as  " soldierly  and  efficient"  as 
any  on  American  territory. 


CHAPTER  XII 

CONQUEST   OF   DISEASE 

After  the  United  States  took  possession  of  the  Canal 
Zone,  as  we  have  just  described,  the  American  people 
expected  to  see  the  canal  begun  at  once.  "Make  the  dirt 
fly,'7  demanded  our  newspapers.  There  was  so  much  impa- 
tience and  disappointment  that  for  two  full  years  little 
digging  could  be  done.  Yet  plain  American  common  sense 
tells  us  that  an  immense  amount  of  preparatory  work  was 
necessary.  The  more  we  know  of  it,  the  more  we  shall 
admire  the  patient,  careful  way  in  which  the  Commission 
made  ready  for  the  great  work. 

The  lessons  of  past  efforts  at  Panama  were  not  forgotten. 
First  of  all,  disease  must  be  conquered.  No  canal  work 
could  hope  to  succeed  until  this  was  done.  In  the  second 
place,  a  large  force  of  workmen  must  be  assembled  and 
houses  and  food  provided  for  them.  Then,  in  the  third 
place,  plans  and  surveys  must  be  most  carefully  made  and 
a  vast  amount  of  powerful  machinery  secured.  And  while 
all  these  preparations  were  going  on,  waste  and  theft  must 
be  absolutely  prevented.  Our  government  expected  to  pay 
its  workmen  generously  and  to  provide  in  every  way  for 
their  comfort,  but  beyond  that  every  dollar  of  American 

137 


138 


DOCTOR  AMADOR 


money  must  go  toward  building  the  canal.  When  all  these 
things  had  been  accomplished,  the  dirt  might  really  "  begin 
to  fly." 

One  morning  in  the  City  of  Panama,  not  long  before  the 
United  States  took  possession  of  the  Canal  Zone,  Dr. 
Amador  met  the  American  consul.  Amador  was  at  that 
time  Chief  Health  Officer  of  the  City  of  Panama.  Some- 


ENTRANCE  TO  HOSPITAL  GROUNDS — ANCON. 

thing  serious   was   evidently   troubling   him,    for   his   face 
showed  great  anxiety. 

"Consul,"  said  he,  as  the  two  men  shook  hands,  "we 
have  six  cases  of  yellow  fever  in  the  city." 


"THEY  ARE  ALL  DEAD"  i39 

At  this  bad  news  the  consul  was  equally  troubled  and  the 
two  men  discussed  what  could  be  done  to  stop  the  spread 


VIEW  OF  HOSPITAL  GROUNDS  FROM  ENTRANCE — ANCON. 

of  the  disease.  Like  most  Panamanians,  Dr.  Amador 
seemed  to  feel  helpless  in  the  presence  of  this  old  enemy. 

By  chance  the  same  men  met  upon  the  following  morning. 

"Well,  consul,"  said  Amador,  now  smiling  and  happy, 
"it  gives  me  pleasure  to  report  that  we  now  have  no  cases 
of  yellow  fever  in  Panama." 

"How  is  that?"  said  the  consul. 

"They  are  all  dead,"  replied  the  doctor. 

This  story  is  often  told  to  illustrate  the  way  in  which 


140  AN  EVIL  REPUTATION 

the  people  of  Panama  had  come  to  look  upon  the  tropical 
diseases  so  common  upon  the  Isthmus.  Here,  as  in  many 
other  parts  of  the  tropics,  the  people  felt  that  nothing  could 
be  done  to  prevent  the  dreadful  loss  of  life.  They  were 
either  ignorant  of  the  causes  of  the  diseases  or  if  they 
did  know,  they  were  too  lazy  to  remove  them.  The  whole 
history  of  Panama,  even  from  the  days  of  Columbus,  was 
one  long  record  of  human  lives  cut  off  by  malaria,  bubonic 
plague,  and  yellow  fever.  It  is  true  that  the  natives  were 
accustomed  to  the  climate  and  did  not  suffer  so  severely 
as  those  who  came  to  Panama  from  other  lands,  but  the 
death  rate  was  always  high.  The  number  of  deaths  among 
the  French  laborers  shocked  the  whole  world.  Everywhere 
Panama  had  an  evil  reputation  for  unhealthfulness. 

As  we  walk  about  during  our  stay  in  Panama  City,  we 
find  many  parts  of  the  town  that  are  still  neither  clean  nor 
healthful.  But,  as  a  whole,  the  place  is  today  as  clean  as 
many  of  the  better  cities  in  our  own  country. 

It  is  now  almost  impossible  to  believe  that  Colon  and 
Panama  City  were  once  about  as  dirty  cities  as  could  be 
found  in  the  world.  But  let  us  look  at  some 
conditions  pictures  in  order  to  see  what  the  old  condi- 
tions were.  Here  is  a  street  in  Panama  as  it 
looked  a  few  years  ago.  Imagine  attempting  to  cross  it. 
Would  you  care  to  live  on  such  a  street?  Do  you  see  any 
signs  of  sewers  or  hydrants?  Probably  not,  for  there  were 
none.  Not  a  good  sewer  nor  drain  nor  water  pipe  in  a 


UNDER  THE   OLD   REGIME 


141 


142  WATER  BARRELS 

city  of  30,000  people!  Not  every  street  was  as  bad  as  this, 
but  there  were  many  of  them,  and  some  much  worse.  If 
you  think  the  street  itself  is  filthy,  suppose  we  pick  our  way 
around  behind  the  houses.  We  should  not  care  to  stay 
there  long, — just  long  enough  to  see  that  all  the  refuse 
from  them  found  its  way  into  the  back  yard.  From  there 
the  waste  water  slowly  ran  out  into  the  street.  So  much 
rainfall  kept  the  whole  mass  soaking  wet.  The  hot  sun 
beating  down  on  clear  days  could  not  dry  out  such  places. 
Foul  odors  and  disease  must  have  been  common.  Presi- 
dent Taft  said  of  the  streets  of  Panama  City:  "They  were 
muddy  in  rainy  weather,  dusty  in  dry  weather,  and  full  of 
disease  in  all  weathers." 

But  what  were  those  curious  looking  barrels  and  tanks 
behind  the  houses?  Take  a  careful  look  into  one  of  them. 
Do  you  see  those  odd  "wigglers"  on  the  surface?  They 
are  little  wormlike  bodies  and  out  of  each  a  mosquito  will 
soon  hatch  and  fly  away.  Among  these  mosquitoes  are, 
no  doubt,  some  of  that  much  dreaded  sort  that  carry  the 
yellow  fever.  And  this  dirty  barrel  certainly  cannot  con- 
tain drinking  water, — and  yet  it  does,  for  there  is  no  other 
to  be  had  in  Panama  City!  Perhaps  these  barrels  and 
tanks  that  catch  the  rain  water  on  which  the  city  depends, 
may  explain  why  so  many  of  the  poor  of  Panama  seem 
never  to  have  taken  a  bath. 

A  picture  of  a  Colon  street  shows  even  worse  conditions. 
Colon  was  built  upon  ground  so  low  that  there  simply  could 


UNDER  THE  NEW    REGIME 


i44          WORK  FOR  COLONEL  GORGAS 

be  no  drainage.  The  houses  of  the  well-to-do  were  kept 
fairly  clean,  but  of  the  houses  of  the  poor,  the  less  said  the 
better.  And  all  about  Colon  were  the  swamps  and  jungles, 
poisonous  air,  and  more  mosquitoes. 

If  the  two  best  cities  of  Panama  were  as  unhealthful  as 
this,  what  must  have  been  the  condition  of  the  twenty  or 
more  miserable  little  towns  along  the  line  of  the  canal? 

It  was  clear  to  the  Canal  Commission  at  the  very  begin- 
ning that  no  canal  could  be  built  as  long  as  filth  and  dis- 
ease continued.  So  they  advised  that  a  man  be  appointed 
to  clean  up  the  Canal  Zone  and  the  cities  of  Colon  and 
Panama.  He  must  be  a  man  who  knew  about  tropical 
diseases  and  had  had  experience  in  fighting  them.  He  must 
have  unlimited  courage  and  patience.  And  he  must  be 
given  all  the  money,  men,  and  time  necessary. 

Gorgas  ^ne  man  cnosen  f°r  tm's  important  task  was 

Colonel  William  C.  Gorgas  of  the  Medical  Corps 
of  the  United  States  Army.  Experience  has  shown  that  the 
choice  was  a  good  one.  Colonel  Gorgas  had  stamped  out 
yellow  fever  in  eight  months  in  Havana,  Cuba,  where  it  had 
been  epidemic  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  forty  years. 
But  the  task  at  Panama  was  much  more  difficult  and  would 
surely  have  discouraged  a  less  determined  man.  When  Colo- 
nel Gorgas  completed  his  first  inspection  of  the  Canal  Zone 
and  declared  that  he  would  make  it  a  fit  place  for  white  peo- 
ple to  live  in, — practically  the  whole  of  Europe  laughed.  Let 
us  see  how  near  he  has  come  to  making  good  his  promise. 


OLD   COLON  STREETS 


Copyright  by  Undenuood  &  Underwood. 

STREET  IN  COLON  BEFORE  PAVING. 


146  HOSPITALS 

At  Colon  and  at  Panama  City  the  French  Canal  Com- 
pany had  built  expensive  hospitals.  Both  were  large  and 
finely  situated,  especially  the  one  at  Ancon,  the  suburb  of 


BOLIVAR  STREET,  COLON — AFTER  AMERICANS  HAD  CLEANED  AND  PAVED  IT. 

the  City  of  Panama.  Colonel  Gorgas  enlarged  and  im- 
proved these  hospitals  and  put  them  in  charge  of  a  corps  of 
expert  doctors  and  trained  nurses.  We  can  see  for  our- 
selves that  they  are  as  well  equipped  to  care  for  the  sick 
as  are  any  in  our  own  country.  Smaller  hospitals  and  camps 
for  the  sick  were  built  also  at  convenient  points  along  the 
canal  line. 

Another  thing  that  had  to  be  done  at  the  very  outset  was 


A  THOROUGH  SCRUBBING  147 

to  clear  away  the  filth  in  the  cities  and  towns, — the  untouched 
accumulation  of  years.  In  the  early  reports  of  Colonel 
Gorgas  we  can  read  of  tens  of  thousands  of  loads  of  rubbish 
and  filth  carted  away  each  month. 

But  to  give  to  the  cities  of  Colon  and  Panama  a  thorough 
scrubbing  and  afterwards  to  keep  them  clean,  required  that 
the  streets  be  paved,  that  there  be  good  sewage  systems 


Copyright  by  Under-wood  &  Under-wood, 

COLONEL  W.  C.  GORGAS,  MEDICAL  CORPS,  U.S.A.,  CHIEF  SANITARY  OFFICER, 
PANAMA  CANAL  ZONE. 


built,  and  a  plentiful  supply  of  good  water.  These  three 
things  required  many  months  of  labor  by  several  thousand 
men.  But  we  can  see  now  that  the  work  has  been  well 


148  ABUNDANT  WATER 

done.  Everywhere  are  well-paved,  dry  streets  and  plenty 
of  drains  and  sewers.  Out  in  the  hills  behind  Colon  and 
Panama  City  excellent  reservoirs  were  built.  If  we  chose 


STREET  IN  COLON — BEFORE  PAVING. 

to  do  so,  we  could  go  to  see  for  ourselves  that  the  water 
is  abundant,  pure,  and  good.  It  is  piped  into  the  cities 
and  towns  in  such  large  quantities  as  to  give  to  each  inhabi- 
tant at  least  fifty  gallons  each  day.  Certainly  that  quantity 
should  be  sufficient  to  keep  one  person  clean. 

The  result  is  that  Panama  City  is  now  the  best  paved, 
best  sewered,  and  best  watered  city  in  all  Central  America 
or  the  northern  half  of  South  America. 


"GETTING   CLEAN  AND   KEEPING   CLEAN 


149 


But  this  work  met  much  opposition  among  the  Panaman- 
ians.   Too  many  were  satisfied  with  the  old  conditions. 

They 
tcnfn  did  not 

want  to 

be  clean.  They  saw 
no  reason  for  dis- 
turbing their  houses 
either  inside  or  out. 
They  opposed  the 
use  of  clean  water. 
Colonel  Gorgas, 
therefore,  selected  a 
number  of  men, 
mostly  intelligent 
natives,  and  sent 
them  about  day 
by  day  among  the 
poorer  classes  to 
teach  the  value  of 
keeping  their  houses, 
their  streets,  and 
themselves  clean. 

Slowly  these  health  inspectors  succeeded.  And  we  now 
find  all  classes  assisting  in  the  work  of  getting  clean  and 
keeping  clean.  As  for  the  water,  it  is  now  used  freely 
by  all.  It  is  a  common  and  an  amusing  sight  to  watch 


STREET  IN  COLON — PAVED  AND  CLEANED. 


150  MALARIA,   PLAGUE,  AND   FEVER 

the    negro    children    enjoying    the    cool    water    from    the 
hydrants. 
The  three  diseases  that  are  most  deadly  to  those  who 


MOUNT  HOPE  RESERVOIR. — "THE  WATER  is  ABUNDANT,  PURE,  AND  GOOD." 

come  to  Panama  from  other  parts  of  the  world,  are  plague, 
malaria,  and  yellow  fever.  The  first  is  usually  brought  in 
by  rats  with  fleas  or  other  parasites  in  ships  from  infected 

ports.  The  diseased  rats  on  these  ships  carry 
Deadly  it  to  other  rats  about  the  wharves,  and  thus  the 

germs  are  carried  into  the  houses  and  plague 
breaks  out  among  the  people.  If  plague  were  to  go,  the  rats 
must  go  first.  All  incoming  ships  are  thoroughly  inspected 


THE  RAT  BRIGADE  151 

and  the  rats  are  killed.  Tons  of  rat  poison  were  placed  each 
week  where  the  animals  could  easily  reach  it.  A  consider- 
able number  of  men  were  organized  into  a  "Rat  Brigade." 
Their  only  business  was  to  destroy  as  many  as  possible.  So 
thorough  has  been  their  work  that  the  rats  are  practically 
exterminated  and  the  Canal  Zone  is  now  free  from  the  dan- 
ger of  plague. 

The   same   thorough   measures   were   taken   to   prevent 


OPENING  OF  PANAMA  WATERWORKS  SYSTEM,  JULY  4,  1905.— IN  FRONT  or  CATHEDRAL. 

malaria  and  yellow  fever.  Both  are  diseases  common  in 
a  tropical  climate  like  Panama's.  The  danger  lies  in  the 
fact  that  mosquitoes  that  sting  patients  who  are  sick  with 


DANGEROUS  MOSQUITOES 


either  disease  carry  off  the  poison  to  those  who  are  well. 

From  one  patient  many  may  thus  be  made  sick.     Not  all 

die  who  have  the 
malaria  but  few 
recover  from  the 
dreaded  yellow 
fever. 

The  mosquito  that 
carries  the  fever  is 
called  the  Stego- 
myia.  Having  bit- 
ten a  person  who 
has  the  fever,  the 
Stegomyia  may 
carry  the  poison  in 
its  stinger  for  several 
months.  Anopheles 
is  the  name  of  the 
variety  that  carries 
the  malarial  poison. 
Though  it  carries  it 
for  only  a  few  days, 
it  can  fly  faster  and 

farther  than  the  Stegomyia,  and  often  bites  by  day  as  well 

as  by  night. 

To  conquer  malaria  and  yellow  fever  the  mosquitoes  had 

to  be  destroyed  throughout  the  Canal  Zone  and  in  Colon 


BEGGING  FOR  A  BATH. 


MORE   BRIGADES 


153 


and  Panama  City.  This  seemed  like  an  impossible  task, 
but  Colonel  Gorgas  and  his  men  went  bravely  at  it.  An 
" Anopheles  Brigade"  and  a  "Stegomyia  Brigade"  were 
formed.  The  people  laugh  in  Panama  today  and  say  that 
all  of  Colonel  Gorgas's  men  could  be  seen  at  times  running 
after  one 

Mosquito  i'f 

Brigades 

tie  mos- 
quito. At  any  rate 
it  was  no  joke  for 
the  mosquitoes. 
They  were  attacked 
everywhere.  Kero- 
sene and  "mosquito 


oil 


were 


poured 


over  stagnant  pools, 
rain  barrels  were 
screened,  miles  of 
ditches  were  dug  and 
swamps  drained, 
great  areas  of  jungle 
were  cut  down  and 

burned,  and  all  sorts  of  methods  were  used  to  destroy  the 
breeding  places.  Then  the  homes  were  frequently  fumi- 
gated and  most  carefully  screened,  and  cases  of  fever  were 
separated  from  those  who  were  well.  Indeed,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  tell  here  all  the  various  methods  that  were 


THE  BATH. 


J54 


HEALTH  REPORTS 


taken  to  free  the  Zone  of  these  deadly  little  pests.     And 
not  only  was  it  necessary  to  kill  those  already  there,  but 
others  had  to  be  prevented  from  coming  in.    Constant  watch- 
fulness by  several  thousand  men  was  necessary. 
We  must  remember,  too,  that  all  this  work  had  to  be 

done  at  the  same  time 
that  thousands  of  igno- 
rant laborers  were  flock- 
ing to  Panama  to  work 
on  the  canal.  It  was 
difficult  to  get  these 
men  to  take  even  the 
simplest  ways  of  pro- 
tecting themselves. 

How  anxiously  Colo- 
nel Gorgas  must  have 
watched  the  daily  and 
monthly  health  reports! 
As  the  filth  and  mos- 
quitoes departed,  would 

King  Disease  go  too?  Slowly,  month  by  month,  the  death 
rate  came  down.  Fewer  and  fewer  cases  of  yellow  fever 
were  reported.  At  last  none  could  be  found.  That  was  in 
May,  1906.  None  are  likely  to  occur  again  while  the  canal 
is  being  built.  With  the  fever  went  also  much  malaria. 
Cases  of  the  latter  are  now  very  mild,  often  scarcely  more 
serious  than  a  severe  cold  in  a  northern  climate. 


HOME  AGAIN  AND  HAPPY. 


THE  VICTORY  WON  155 

The  great  fight  has  been  expensive  and  will  continue 
to  be  so.     The  United  States  may  spend  as  much  as  $20,- 
000,000  in  this  fight  before  the  canal  is  finished. 
But  no  one  now  doubts  that  it  is  money  well 
spent.     As  Americans  we  can  today  feel  proud 
that  we  have  at  last  made  it  possible  for  a  laborer  to  work 


Healthful 
Panama 


AVENUE  OF  PALMS  AT  CRISTOBAL. 

in  the  Canal  Zone  with  as  much  safety  as  in  most  parts  of 
the  United  States.  There  is  at  present  no  higher  death 
rate  in  the  Canal  Zone  than  in  New  York  City.  When 
King  Disease  was  thus  conquered,  the  battle  for  the  canal 
was  half  won. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ASSEMBLING  A  WORKING  FORCE 

To  make  the  Canal  Zone  a  fit  place  to  work  in  was  a 
difficult  task.  To  secure  a  sufficient  number  of  good  work- 
men was  another  almost  equally  difficult.  The  American 
laborer  is  the  most  efficient  workman  in  the  world.  If 
enough  of  such  laborers  could  have  been  persuaded  to  go 
to  Panama  and  to  stay  there  and  work,  the  labor  problem 
would  have  been  easily  solved  and  the  canal  built  in  the 
shortest  time.  But  this  was  soon  found  to  be  impossible. 
Though  the  wages  offered  were  high,  large  numbers  of 
laborers  did  not  care  to  leave  their  homes  in  the  United 
States  and  go  away  off  to  Panama.  There  were  plenty  of 
good  opportunities  for  work  nearer  at  hand.  The  Canal 
Commission  was,  therefore,  obliged  to  secure  the  best 
laborers  it  could  get  in  lands  whose  climate  was  similar  to 
that  of  Panama. 

We  shall  find  about  40,000  laborers  of  all  sorts  at  work 
on  the  canal  and  on  the  Panama  Railroad.  The  latter  is 
The  "  Gold  now  owned  by  the  United  States  and  run  by 
the  Canal  Commission.  Of  the  40,000  men 
about  5,000  are  the  skilled  workmen  and  are  mostly  Ameri- 
cans. These  5,000  are  trained  engineers,  draftsmen,  clerks, 

156 


"GOLD   MEN"  157 

steam-shovel  men,  powder  men,  surveyors,  foremen,  etc. 
Many  people  believe  that  no  finer  force  of  men  than  these 
Americans  was  ever  gathered  together  for  a  great  work. 

They  are,  indeed,  a  splendid  lot.  Without  their  brains 
and  energy  no  canal  could  be  built.  For  this  reason  they 
are  well  paid  and  well  cared  for.  The  pay  received  is 
about  one  and  one  half  times  as  much  as  for  similar  work 


DINNER  TIME  AT  A  COMMISSION  HOTEL. 


at  home.     Their  wages  are  paid  them  in  gold  and  they  are, 
therefore,  known  in  Panama  as  the  "Gold  Men." 

The  contrast  between  these  American  workers  and  the 
natives  of  Panama  is  very  striking.     "You  see  the  Pana- 


'58 


A   CONTRAST 


manians  idling  out  of  windows  and  in  the  shade  of  doorways 
watching  our  driving  work.  They  are  thin,  slow-moving, 
impassive,  often  solemn.  There  is  no  glow  in  the  dead 
yellows  and  browns  of  their  flesh.  But  when  you  look  at 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood. 

A  PRIVATE  MESS  AT  CRISTOBAL. 


our  engineers,  mechanics,  and  foremen,  you  see  full-blooded 
health  shining  in  their  faces.  They  are  boisterous,  hard- 
working, ingenious,  quick  to  lay  hold  of  a  pick  or  drive  a 
spade,  to  show  how  it  should  be  done.  Their  good  humor 
is  almost  unfailing,  but  it  never  enfeebles  the  sharp  word 
of  command,  as  the  dull  Jamaicans  have  learned." 

Because  the  "Gold  Men"  do  not  fear  disease  in  the  Canal 


HOMES   OF  THE   "GOLD   MEN! 


SIDE  STREET,  CRISTOBAL — SHOWING  DWELLINGS  OF  GOLD  MEN. 


"  COMFORTABLE,  DRY,  WELL-BUILT  HOUSES." 


160  COMMON  LABORERS 

Zone,  many  of  them  have  brought  their  families  with  them. 
In  towns  like  Cristobal,  Ancon,  and  others  we  can  see 
their  comfortable,  dry,  well-built  houses.  Their  children 
attend  good  American  schools  in  the  Zone  and  are  as  bright 
and  happy  children  as  could  be  found. 

In  recreation  hours  these  ".Gold  Men"  are  a  jolly  company. 
We  shall  find  them  engaged  in  baseball,  basket  ball,  tennis, 
and  other  sports,  or  reading  and  loafing  in  the  club  houses 
provided  by  the  Canal  Commission.  There  are  many  of 
these  club  houses  along  the  line  of  the  canal  work.  They 
are  conducted  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
There  are  libraries  and  women's  clubs  too;  and  fishing 
parties  and  picnics  and  other  pleasures  make  life  agreeable 
for  both  men  and  women. 

The    35,000   common   laborers    are   paid    in    the    silver 

money  of  Panama  or  its  equivalent,  and  are 

Men"8'1™       known    as    "Silver    Men."     The    usual    wage 

amounts,  on  the  average,  to  about  $i  per  day 

in  our  money  or  about  $2  in  Panamanian  money. 

We  remember  that  when  the  Panama  Railroad  was  built, 
it  was  found  very  difficult  to  secure  laborers  who  could 
endure  the  climate  of  Panama  and  do  any  real  work.  The 
De  Lesseps  Company  had  the  same  difficulty.  The  French 
found  that  the  negroes  from  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies, 
especially  Jamaica,  were  the  best  all-round  workmen  that 
could  be  had  in  large  numbers.  This,  too,  has  been  the 
experience  of  the  United  States. 


Y.   M.   C.   A.   QUARTERS 


161 


COMMISSION  CLUBHOUSE  AT  EMPIRE. 


BOWLING. 


162  WEST   INDIAN  NEGROES 

At  Panama  these  negroes  receive  higher  wages  than  they 
have  ever  known  before  and  are  provided  with  hospital 
treatment  when  sick  and  with  clean  dwellings  and  good 
food.  We  shall  see  their  houses  and  camps  all  along  the 
line.  Those  of  us  who  know  what  wretchedly  dirty  huts 
they  are  accustomed  to,  will  understand  better  why  they 
are  glad  to  stay  and  work  on  the  canal.  A  prominent 
American  of  long  experience  with  these  men  says, — "  These 
West  Indian  laborers  have  never  known,  and  in  their  most 
pleasant  dreams  have  never  hoped  for,  the  splendid  care 
and  liberal  treatment  they  are  receiving  from  our  govern- 
ment on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama." 

At  the  mess-kitchens  for  the  negroes  the  Commission 
furnishes  them  three  good  meals  per  day  for  about  thirty 
cents.  It  is  said  that  at  first  they  objected  to  the  strength- 
ening American  food  because  it  made  them  feel  too  much 
like  working.  "It  consists  of  rice,  beans,  onions,  fresh  and 
salt  beef,  codfish,  lard,  bread,  sugar,  and  coffee,  varied 
with  occasional  potatoes  and  bananas." 

Despite  good  care  and  good  food  these  negroes  are  not 
good  workmen.  Some  are  expert  loafers.  Many  study  to 
do  just  as  little  as  possible.  Nearly  all  are  dull,  stupid, 
and  ignorant.  Their  movements  are  slow  and  their  efforts 
lack  energy  and  intelligence.  Moreover,  they  object  to 
working  in  the  rain  and  run  for  shelter  when  the  first  drops 
fall.  Theodore  P.  Shonts,  at  one  time  Chairman  of  the 
Canal  Commission,  relates  the  following  story  to  show  how 


HOW  THE  LABORERS  FARE 


163 


CLEAN  DWELLINGS." — COMMON  LABORERS'  QUARTERS,  COLON. 


"THREE  GOOD  MEALS  PER  DAY  FOR  THIRTY  CENTS." 


1 64 


AN  EXPERT  LOAFER 


they  work.  A  heavy  piece  of  machinery  was  being  unloaded 
from  the  hold  of  a  vessel.  The  tackle  got  caught  in  the 
rigging  on  the  deck  above;  the  foreman  in  charge  of  the 
gang  of  laborers  sent  one  of  them  above  to  free  the  tackle. 
The  laborer  went  to  the  place  to  which  he  was  sent  and 
did  what  he  was  told  to  do.  The  foreman,  paying  no 
attention  to  him  after  he  started  on  his  errand,  missed 
him  a  few  minutes  later,  and,  looking  around  for  him, 
discovered  him  sitting  peacefully  at  the  spot  to  which  he 


CURIOUS  TURBANS  AND  FOREIGN  FACES." 


had  been  sent.  "What  are  you  doing  there?"  yelled  the 
foreman.  "You  told  me  to  come  here,  Sah."  "Well, 
why  didn't  you  come  back?"  "You  didn't  tell  me  to, 


LABORERS   FROM  ASIA 


165 


Sah."  Altogether  these  men  probably  do  not  accomplish 
more  than  one  half  as  much  as  such  laborers  in  a  cooler 
climate. 

Better  than  the  negroes  in  the  value  of  their  work  are 
some  East  Indians.  There  are  not  many  of  them  on  the 
canal.  They  have  come  chiefly  from  Asia  to  the  British 
West  Indies  and  thence  to  Panama.  What  odd-looking 
fellows  they  are!  The  curious  turbans  on  their  heads  and 


A  .GROUP  OF  SPANISH  LABORERS. 


their  foreign  faces  make  them  seem  quite  out  of  place  on 
an  American  canal.  How  much  larger  and  more  energetic 
than  the  negroes  they  are,  and  how  slowly  but  quietly  and 


i66 


SPANIARDS  AND   ITALIANS 


steadily  they  go  about  their  work!  The  Commission  would 
be  glad  to  get  more  of  them,  for  they  are  thoroughly  good 
workers,  peaceful,  sober,  and  industrious.  We  shall  usually 
see  them  carrying  the  5o-lb.  boxes  of  dynamite  from  the 
powder  houses  to  the  other  workmen.  They  are  proud  of 
their  race,  remain  closely  by  themselves,  and  even  in  Pan- 
ama keep  many  of  their  native  customs. 

Of  all  the  "  Silver  Men,"  the  Spaniards  and  Italians  are 

the  best.  They  will 
do  twice  as  much 
work  per  day  as 
will  the  negroes, 
and  they  receive 
much  more  pay. 
There  are  about 


8,000  of  them  at 
work  in  the  Zone. 
Nearly  all  come 
directly  to  Panama 
from  Spain  or 
Italy.  The  Span- 
iards are  perhaps 
less  likely  to  suffer 
from  the  climate 

and,  therefore,  accomplish  more.  They  are  small  in  size  but 
muscular,  willing  to  be  taught,  and  anxious  to  be  pro- 
moted to  better  positions  as  subforemen  or  foremen  of 


A  GANG  OF  ITALIANS. 


OTHER   "SILVER   MEN 


167 


their  work.  Where  strength  and  intelligence  are  needed, 
these  men  can  be  depended  upon.  No  amount  of  rainy 
weather  can  keep  them  from  the  work. 

There  are  laborers  of  many  other  nationalities  here  and 
there  on  the  canal  work,  but  they  are  few  in  number. 


INTERIOR  OF  A  MESS  HALL  FOR  EUROPEAN  LABORERS. 

Taking  the  "  Silver  Men  "  as  a  whole,  we  shall  find  them 
of  mixed  race  and  language,  poor  workmen,  and  hard  to 
handle.  And  yet,  under  the  leadership  of  the  "  Gold  Men," 
we  feel  sure  that  in  the  end  they  will  build  the  canal. 

One  more  thing  remains  to  be  considered  in  respect  to 
the  working  force.  It  is  the  problem  of  feeding  them  and  ' 


i68  A   DIFFICULT   PROBLEM 

of  providing  them  with  clothing  and  other  necessities.     Over 

40,000  persons  to  be  fed  and  the  markets  2,000  miles  away! 

Certainlv  this  is  no  small  matter.     But  here. 

Supplies 

too,  the  same  careful  plans  were  laid  as 
for  other  parts  of  the  work  and  the  same  satisfactory 
results  followed.  At  Cristobal  and  at  twelve  other  vil- 
lages stores  were  built,  in  which  food  and  all  other  neces- 


TYPICAL  LABOR  TRAIN. 


sities  can  be  purchased  at  prices  only  slightly  above  cost. 
An  ice  plant  was  erected  at  Colon  and  with  it  a  cold  storage 
plant,  so  that  meat  and  vegetables  and  other  perishable 
food  can  now  be  kept  in  as  good  condition  as  in  any  part 


SATISFACTORY  RESULTS  169 

of  the  United  States  in  summer  time.  Early  each  morning 
a  special  train  with  cold  storage  cars  is  rushed  out  over 
the  railroad  to  carry  supplies  to  all  points  on  the  canal 
line.  So  it  has  come  about  that  quite  as  good  food  is  served 
in  the  hotels  and  mess-kitchens  as  is  provided  for  men  in 
similar  work  in  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

MACHINERY  AND   THE   PANAMA  RAILROAD 

It  is  an  old  saying  that  a  poor  workman  puts  the  blame 
for  his  poor  work  upon  his  tools.  It  is  equally  true  that 
a  good  workman  cannot  work  well  with  poor  tools.  The 
United  States  government  determined  that  whatever  the 
quality  of  the  laborers  at  Panama  might  be,  the  tools  and 
machinery  should  be  the  very  best. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  American  laborer  as  the  best  in 
the  world.  He  does  the  most  and  in  the  shortest  time. 
This  may  be  so  in  part  because  he  has  better  machinery 
with  which  to  work.  American  inventors  and  machinery 
lead  the  world.  All  over  our  broad  land,  on  the  farms 
and  in  the  factories,  in  the  mills  and  quarries,  on  the  rail- 
roads, and  hidden  in  the  unseen  parts  of  great  buildings, 
ships,  and  mines,  is  a  vast  amount  of  wonderful  machinery. 
It  does  easily,  cheaply,  and  swiftly,  work  that  no  number 
of  human  hands  could  do. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  to  watch  are  those  great 
machines  that  accomplish  the  heavy  tasks  of  cutting,  lift- 
ing, or  carrying.  We  shall  see  many  of  this  sort  at  work 
on  the  canal.  Indeed,  it  would  be  safe  to  say  that  without 

the  splendid  American  machinery  that  our  government  has 

170 


OLD   MACHINERY  USED  171 

been  able  to  secure,  no  canal  could  be  built  at  Panama. 
Human  hands  alone  could  never  do  the  work. 

When  our  government  purchased  the  property  of  the 
French  Canal  Company,  it  came  into  possession  of  an 
immense  amount  of  machinery  of  all  sorts,  scattered  along 
the  line  of  the  canal.  That  was  in  1904.  Much  of  the 
French  machinery  had  been  at  work  as  far 
back  as  1889,  and  so,  of  course,  was  out-of-  Machinery 
date.  Much  also  had  been  ruined  by  rust  and 
neglect.  Some,  however,  could  be  used.  For  instance,  it 
was  found  that  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  of 
the  old  French  locomotives  could  be  repaired  and  put  to 
work  again.  Some  old  dredges,  scows,  tugs,  dump  cars, 
etc.,  with  many  miles  of  track,  were  still  ready  for  service. 
What  work  the  Canal  Commission  accomplished  during  the 
first  two  years  of  preparation  was  in  large  part  done  with  this 
old  machinery.  We  can  still  see  some  of  it  at  work  on  the 
canal.  It  has  been  said  that  the  old  French  machinery  was 
worth  fully  $2,000,000  to  the  United  States. 

In  general,  however,  an  entirely  new  outfit  of  tools  and 
machinery  was  necessary.  Here  again  the  distance  of 
Panama  from  supplies  of  this  sort  added  tre- 

New  Outfit 

mendously  to  the  difficulties.     Locomotives  and 
dump  cars,  dredges  and  steam  shovels,  barges  and  rock 
crushers,  and  a  vast  amount  of  hand  tools  were  purchased 
and  shipped  to  the  Isthmus.     In  the  Zone  itself  docks  for 
handling  machinery,  coal,  lumber,  etc.,  were  built.     Long 


172 


SPLENDID   NEW  EQUIPMENT 


lines  of  track  were  laid  to  carry  the  machinery  and  supplies 
to  the  scene  of  work.  The  largest  cement-mixing  and 
handling  plants  ever  built  were  here  constructed.  Com- 
pressed-air plants  to  furnish  power  for  the  drills,  and  great 


"  ONE  OF  THE  Two  GREATEST  REPAIR  SHOPS." 

general  repair  shops  were  erected.  We  shall  surely  be 
astonished,  as  we  travel  along  the  line,  to  see  the  splendid 
equipment  for  work  that  the  Commission  has  secured. 

At  Empire,  for  instance,  is  one  of  the  two  greatest  repair 
shops.  Tt  is  close  to  the  line  of  the  canal.  Notice  how  the 
railroad  tracks  are  arranged  so  that  even  the  largest  pieces 
of  machinery  can  be  brought  directly  to  the  shop.  In  this 


THE   GREAT   STOREHOUSE 


173 


one  place  we  can  see  1,000  men  at  work.  The  shops  are 
modern  in  every  way  and  equal  to  the  best  railroad  repair 
shops  in  the  United  States.  Here  is  a  foundry  and  a  lum- 
ber mill  and  everything  necessary  to  repair  or  rebuild  any 
piece  of  machinery  on  the  canal. 

Near  the  repair  shops  is  the  great  storehouse.  Let  us 
step  inside.  See  the  great  rooms  with  shelves  on  shelves 
of  all  sorts  of  articles  neatly  labeled  and  laid  away!  We 


STOREHOUSE  AT  EMPIRE. 


are  told  that  here  are  over  10,000  different  articles  used  in 
the  canal  work.  Suddenly  in  rushes  a  workman  with  a 
note  from  some  engineer  or  foreman  out  on  the  canal.  A 
steam  shovel  has  broken  down  or  a  drill  is  out  of  order 


174  AMERICAN  METHODS 

and  a  new  part  is  needed  at  once.  Immediately  the  men 
in  charge  of  the  storehouse  can  pick  out  the  exact  article, 
and  before  we  know  what  has  happened,  the  workman  is 


TEN  THOUSAND  ARTICLES — "  NEATLY  LABELED  AND  LAID  AWAY." 

out  again  on  the  canal  and  the  broken  machine  will  soon 
be  in  order.  This  is  the  American  way, — no  confusion,  no 
lack  of  materials,  no  delay.  Time  is  as  valuable  at  Panama 
as  in  New  York. 

Around   the  shops  and  storehouse  at  Empire  has  grown 
up  the  largest  town  in  the  Canal  Zone,  exclu- 

Empire 

sive  of  Colon  and  Panama  City.     It  is  a  pleasure 
to  see  how  clean  and  neat  the  whole  place  is.     It  is  more 


PANAMA  RAILROAD  175 

like  a  park  than  a  town.  The  ground  has  been  cleared 
of  jungle  for  a  long  distance  away  from  the  houses.  Here, 
as  in  all  the  canal  towns,  the  Commission  has  done  every- 
thing to  make  living  comfortable  and  healthful. 

When  the  United  States  purchased  the  French  Com- 
pany's machinery,  it  also  secured  the  Panama  Railroad. 
Like  almost  everything  else  left  by  the  French  it  was  in 
need  of  repair.  Its  docks,  yards,  warehouses,  tracks,  loco- 


"  POWERFUL  LOCOMOTIVES  WERE  ALSO  ADDED." 

motives,  and  cars  were  not  fit  for  the  great  increase  in  busi- 
ness which  at  once  came  to  the  Isthmus.  The  road  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  doing  everything  in  the  most  expensive 


176  A  FIRST-CLASS   RAILROAD 

way.  The  unloading  of  coal  from  steamers  is  a  good  exam- 
ple. It  was  done  almost  entirely  by  the  hands  of  negro 
laborers  and  cost  $1.30  a  ton.  The  Commission  put  in  a 
modern  coal-hoisting  machine  and  did  the  work  better 


"Now  THE  ROAD  is  IN  FIRST-CLASS  CONDITION." 
Private  car  of  Chairman  of  Isthmian  Canal  Commission. 

and  quicker  for  12  cents  per  ton.  In  the  same  manner 
the  road  was  improved  by  heavier  rails,  by  double  track 
for  nearly  all  of  its  length,  by  new  and  better  wharves,  and 
by  larger  yards  and  cars.  Eighty-two  powerful  locomotives 
were  also  added.  Now  the  road  is  in  first-class  condition. 
But  all  this  work  required  many  months  of  labor  and 
much  money.  Real  digging  was  still  delayed. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SEA-LEVEL  AND   LOCK   CANALS 

The  two  years  filled  with  the  slow  and  costly  work  of 
preparation  which  we  have  been  describing,  seemed  very 
long  indeed  to  those  who  wished  to  see  the  "dirt  fly."  We 
can  now  understand  clearly  why  so  much  delay  was  neces- 
sary. The  canal  could  not  be  built  without  it.  And  when 
the  work  of  digging  once  began  it  could  go  faster  and  more 
successfully. 

During  these  two  years  also  a  careful  study  was  made 
of  the  land  between  Colon  and  Panama  City,  in  order  to 
see  what  sort  of  ship  canal  was  best  for  the  Isthmus  at  that 
point.  Ship  canals  are  not  all  alike.  There  are  two  kinds 
or  types,  as  they  are  called,  that  we  must  understand  before 
we  can  know  what  is  being  done  at  Panama. 

The  first   is  the  sea-level  type.     This   type   is   easy  to 
understand.     A  sea-level  ship  canal  means  merely  a  great 
open  ditch  dug  at  the  same  level  between  two 
bodies    of    water.     The    water    flows    freely         Typ~eLevel 
through  it  from  one  end  to  the  other.     It  is 
dug  as  deep  and  as  wide  as  is  desired.     The  canal  is  thus 

what  the  geographies  would  call  a  very  narrow  "strait." 

177 


178  CORINTH   CANAL 

Ships  can  pass  back  and  forth  through  it  from  ocean  to 
ocean  without  difficulty  or  delay. 

Of  the  nine  ship  canals  of  the  world  three  are  sea-level 
canals.  They  are  the  Cronstadt,  the  Corinth,  and  the 
Suez  canals.  With  the  latter  we  are  already  acquainted. 
The  Cronstadt  is  in  Russia.  It  is  20  feet  deep,  about  300 
feet  wide,  and  is  about  16  miles  long.  The  cost  was  $10,- 
000,000.  The  canal  was  opened  in  1890.  The  Corinth 
canal  is  in  Greece  and  connects  the  Gulfs  of  Corinth  and 
^Egina.  The  length  is  but  4  miles.  The  work  was  begun 
in  1884  and  completed  in  1893.  The  cost  was  $5,000,000. 
A  picture  of  this  canal,  with  Mr.  J.  P.  Morgan's  yacht  Cor- 
sair passing  through  it,  gives  a  very  good  idea  of  a  sea- 
level  ship  canal. 

This  picture  also  shows  several  interesting  things  about 
the  Corinth  Canal.  As  can  be  seen,  it  is  perfectly  straight. 
This  is  true  for  its  entire  length.  The  depth  of  water  in 
the  canal  is  26  feet,  but  the  width  at  the  bottom  is  only 
69  feet  and  at  the  water's  surface  only  80  feet.  Imagine 
a  great  ocean  liner  like  the  Lusitania, — 88  feet  in  width, 
attempting  to  squeeze  through.  It  would  be  impossible. 
Two  very  much  smaller  vessels  could  not  pass  each  other. 
It  is  clear  that  in  its  present  condition  it  is  not  useful  for 
the  large  ships  that  carry  the  commerce  of  the  world. 

No  other  ship  canal  has  so  high  or  so  steep  banks. 
This  is  possible  only  because  it  was  cut  down  through 
granite  and  hard  clay,  and  because  the  rainfall  during 


AN  OLD-WORLD   ENTERPRISE 


179 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood. 

THE  "CORSAIR"  PASSING  THROUGH  THE  CORINTH  CANAL. 


i8o  ST.   MARYS   FALLS   CANAL 

the  year  at  Corinth  is  not  great,  and  no  rivers  flow  into 
the  canal. 

But  this  sea-level  type  of  canal  is  not  possible  where  the 

two  bodies  of  water  to  be  connected  are  not  on  the  same 

level  or  where  the  land  between  them  is  too 

high  to  be  cut  through.     In  such  cases  a  lock 

canal  is  necessary.     This  is  the  second  type. 

To  understand  exactly  what  a  lock  canal  is,  let  us  take 
an  illustration  from  our  own  country.  The  St.  Marys 
Falls  Canal  connects  Lake  Superior  and  Lake  Huron  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Michigan.  Some  of  us  have  seen  this 
little  canal  and  perhaps  have  passed  through  it.  It  is  but 
ij  miles  long,  and  is  160  feet  wide  and  25  feet  deep.  The 
important  thing  to  notice  concerning  it  is  the  fact  that 
Lake  Superior  is  about  20  feet  higher  than  Lake  Huron. 

If  a  ship  on  Lake  Huron  sails  into  the  lower  end  of  the 
canal  and  wishes  to  pass  on  to  Lake  Superior,  it  must  be 
lifted  20  feet  at  some  place  in  the  canal.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  vessel  wishes  to  pass  in  the  opposite  direction,  it 
must  be  lowered  20  feet.  This  raising  and  lowering  is  done 
in  a  portion  of  the  canal  known  as  a  lock. 

How  does  a  lock  work?     Some  pictures  and  a  drawing 

may  help  to  show.     In  the  drawing  the  lock  is  seen  to  be 

a  portion  of  the  canal  enclosed  by  strong  walls 

A  Lock 

and  by  two  double  gates  A  and  B,  one  at  each 
end.  The  walls  are  usually  of  masonry  or  concrete. 
Power  is  supplied  by  machinery,  so  that  the  gates  can  be 


HOW  A  LOCK  WORKS 


181 


opened  or  closed  at  will.  Below  gate  A  the  water  is  at 
the  lower  level  and  a  vessel  is  ready  to  sail  into  the  lock. 
The  water  in  the  lock  is  at  the  lower  level.  Suppose  that 
the  gates  at  A  are  then  opened.  The  vessel  passes  through 
into  the  lock  and  the  gates  are  tightly  closed  after  her.  We 


r GATES 


DIAGRAM  SHOWING  OPERATION  OF  A  CANAL  LOCK. 

can  now  see  her  in  the  second  position,  ready  to  be  raised. 
The  inside  of  the  lock  is  connected  with  the  outer  water  lev- 
els by  large  pipes.  When  the  flood  gates  in  these  pipes  are 
opened  the  water  from  the  higher  level  rushes  in  and  rapidly 
fills  the  lock.  The  vessel  meantime  has  been  lifted  by  the 
in-rushing  water  until  she  floats  in  the  lock  on  a  level  with 
the  upper  part  of  the  canal.  Then  the  gates  at  B  are  thrown 
wide  open  and  the  vessel  sails  away  through  the  remainder 
of  the  canal. 

The  same  thing  can  be  done  for  a  ship  that  wishes  to 
go  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  gates  at  B  are  opened 
when  the  lock  is  full  of  water.  The  vessel  passes  in  and 


182 


A   STEAMER  IN  THE  LOCK 


THE   ST.   MARYS   FALLS   LOCK 


183 


the  gates  are  tightly  closed  after  her.  Next  the  flood  gates 
are  opened,  the  water  in  the  lock  runs  out  until  it  is  down 
to  the  lower  level,  the  gates  at  A  are  then  opened  wide  and 
the  ship  continues  on  her  journey. 


t  \ 


AN  EMPTY  LOCK — SAULT  STE.  MARIE  CANAL. 


Now,  if  we  look  at  the  picture  of  the  great  locks  in  the 
St.  Marys  Falls  Canal,  we  can  see   the  process  actually 
going  on.     In  this  canal  there  are  two  locks 
side  by  side  with  a  power  house  between  them          operation 
to   furnish  the  power  needed   to  operate  the 
gates.     In  the  distance,  on  the  left  of  the  picture,  the  upper 
level  of  the  canal  can  be  seen.     Nearer  to  us  is  a  vessel 


184  TWO   BUSY  LOCKS 

in  the  lock.  We  can  see  that  the  flood  gates  are  being 
opened,  for  the  water  is  rushing  out,  white  with  foam, 
directly  toward  us.  It  will  not  be  long  before  the  water 
has  all  run  out  and  the  ship  been  dropped  to  the  lower 
level  and  then  be  ready  to  leave  the  lock.  The  lower  level 
is  shown  in  the  foreground,  and  on  it  another  vessel  is 
waiting  to  enter  the  lock  and  be  raised.  On  the  right- 
hand  side  of  the  power  house  a  third  vessel  has  been  low- 
ered from  above  and  is  just  passing  out  of  the  other  lock. 

Probably  none  of  the  large-sized  locks  in  the  world  are 
more  busy  than  these  two  at  St.  Marys  Falls.  More  ships 
pass  through  this  canal  in  a  year  than  through  any  other 
ship  canal, — three  times  as  many  as  at  Suez.  They  carry 
over  30,000,000  tons  of  freight  and  thousands  of  passengers. 

When  two  locks  are  placed  side  by  side,  as  these  two 
are,  they  are  said  to  be  "in  duplicate."  If  Lake  Superior 
were  much  more  than  20  feet  higher  than  Lake  Huron, 
one  lock  would  probably  not  be  able  to  do  the  work  of 
raising  and  lowering  the  vessels.  Several  locks  might  then 
be  built, — one  directly  following  the  other,  and  each  capa- 
ble of  raising  or  lowering  ships  for  a  part  of  the  full  dis- 
tance required.  The  locks  would  then  appear  somewhat 
like  great  steps,  one  above  the  other.  A  number  of  locks 
so  arranged  are  called  a  "flight  of  locks."  "Flights  of 
locks"  may  also  be  "in  duplicate." 

We  can  now  understand  what  is  meant  by  a  lock  canal. 
The  Erie  canal,  for  instance,  between  Albany  and  Buffalo, 


ERIE   CANAL  185 

is  only  seven  feet  deep,  and  is  not  therefore  a  ship  canal; 
but  its  locks  are  on  the  same  plan  as  those  just  described, 
though  smaller.  In  the  387  miles  of  this  canal  there  are 
72  locks.  Of  the  nine  ship  canals  of  the  world  six  are  of 
the  lock  type. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  LOCK  CANAL  AT  PANAMA 

What  is  the  best  type  of  canal  for  Panama?  At  first 
thought  this  would  not  seem  to  be  a  difficult  question  to 
answer.  If  a  deep  channel,  at  least  500  feet  wide  at  the 
bottom,  could  be  cut  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  could  be 
kept  clear  for  the  passage  of  ocean  vessels  of  the  largest 
size,  it  would  be,  of  course,  the  ideal  canal.  But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  such  a  sea-level  canal  would  cost  at  least  $500,- 
000,000  more  than  a  good  lock  canal  and  would  require 
very  many  years  to  build.  The  idea  of  ever  digging  such 
an  enormous  ditch  was  given  up  as  impracticable  more  than 
twenty  years  ago. 

De  Lesseps  originally  planned  a  sea-level  canal.  It  was 
to  be  29  feet  deep  and  72  feet  wide  at  the  bottom.  He 
declared  that  it  could  be  built  in  eight  years  for  about 
$128,000,000.  Before  his  scheme  failed  he  had  been 
forced  to  change  his  plans  to  the  lock  type  with  a  depth 
of  only  15  feet. 

The  United  States  took  possession  of  the  Canal  Zone  in 
May,  1904.  For  more  than  two  years  the  type  of  canal 
that  we  were  to  adopt  was  in  doubt.  Probably  no  engi- 
neering question  of  this  sort  ever  aroused  more  widespread 

186 


BEST  TYPE  FOR  PANAMA  187 

interest  in  America.  While  the  preliminary  work  of  clean- 
ing the  Zone  and  making  it  a  healthful  place,  and  securing 
workmen  and  machinery,  was  going  on,  scores  of  engineers 
were  at  work  on  the  canal  plans.  Holes  were  dug  and 
borings  made  in  many  places  to  find  out  what  sort  of  soil 
or  rock  lay  beneath  the  surface.  Surveys  of  all  sorts  were 
made  and  maps  drawn.  Both  Houses  of  Congress  dis- 
cussed the  problem  at  great  length.  And  magazines  and 
newspapers  printed  hundreds  of  articles  on  the  subject. 

In  order  to  secure  the  most  expert  advice  President 
Roosevelt  appointed  in  1905  a  board  of  consulting  engi- 
neers consisting  of  thirteen  men.  Of  these, 

The  Board 

eight  were  Americans  and  five  were  foreigners,  of  consulting 
This  board  included  some  of  the  world's  fore- 
most authorities  upon  the  construction  of  dams  and  canals. 
These  men  visited  the  Isthmus,  studied  all  the  facts  they 
could  secure,  and  listened  to  all  who  had  ideas  to  suggest. 
Finally,  in  January  of  1906,  they  made  their  report.  Three 
Americans  and  all  the  five  foreigners  favored  a  sea-level 
canal.  The  five  other  Americans  voted  for  a  lock  canal. 
At  the  same  time  the  Isthmian  Canal  Commission,  which 
was  actually  to  have  the  digging  in  charge,  voted  5  to  i 
in  favor  of  the  lock  type.  So  it  was  difficult  to  decide 
which  of  the  two  types  was  really  better. 

Before  we  examine  the  two  types  more  carefully,  we 
should  remember  the  following  facts  about  the  canal  route. 
First,  a  canal  of  either  sort  will  be  fifty  miles  long,  from 


i88  A  DIFFICULT   ROUTE 

Atlantic  to  Pacific,  41  miles  through  the  land  and  9  miles 
of  channel  in  the  harbors  at  the  two  ends.     Second,  the  41 

miles  through  the  land  naturally  divides  itself 
the*  RouteU  mto  f°ur  parts.  From  Colon,  on  the  Atlantic,  to 

Bohio,  the  route  passes  for  12  miles  through 
low  swampy  ground  not  much  above  sea  level.  During 
the  next  15  miles,  from  Bohio  to  Bas  Obispo,  the  land  rises 
to  about  50  feet  above  sea  level.  Thence  the  canal  cuts 
through  the  hills  for  9  miles  more  to  Miraflores.  The 
highest  point  of  land  is  Gold  Hill  at  Culebra  and  is  662  feet 
above  the  sea.  But  there  is  a  " saddle"  between  the  hills 
through  which  the  canal  will  run,  which,  at  its  lowest  point 
is  312  feet  above  sea-level.  This  part  is  the  famous  Culebra 
Cut.  It  is  mainly  through  a  moderately  hard  rock.  From 
Miraflores  to  the  Pacific  is  a  distance  of  5  miles  and  is  about 
at  sea  level.  Third,  the  greatest  difficulty  is  the  control  of  the 
floods  of  the  Chagres  river  arid  its  many  tributaries.  For 
23  miles  the  route  follows  the  valley  of  this  river  and  crosses 
and  recrosses  its  bed.  This  Chagres  is  an  unruly  stream. 
Though  it  is  only  a  small  stream  in  the  dry  season,  in  flood 
time  tremendous  quantities  of  water  rush  down  its  valley. 
It  is  estimated  that  during  the  great  flood  of  1879  it  was, 
for  several  hours,  three  fourths  as  large  as  the  Niagara 
river.  A  canal  of  either  type  must  be  so  built  as  to  pro- 
vide safe  protection  from  such  great  floods. 

Bearing  these  facts  in  mind  we  are  now  ready  to  exam- 
ine the  two  types.     Those  engineers  who  favored  a  sea- 


SEA-LEVEL  PLAN  189 

level  canal  proposed  a  narrow  channel  of  41  miles  in 
length,  from  150  to  200  feet  in  width  at  the  bottom,  and 
40  feet  in  depth.  This  is  10  feet  deeper  and 

Sea-level 

about  70  feet  wider  on  the  average  than  the  canal  at 

Suez  Canal.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  make 
the  width  greater  without  too  great  expense.  Nor  would 
it  be  possible  to  dig  a  perfectly  straight  channel  as  at 
Corinth.  Nineteen  of  the  41  miles  are  on  curves  such  that 
vessels  would  be  obliged  to  sail  very  carefully, — not  over 
4  miles  per  hour.  If  two  ships  were  to  pass  each  other, 
one  must  be  stopped  and  tied  to  the  bank,  in  order  to  avoid 
danger  of  collision.  Two  of  the  largest  ocean  liners  could 
not  pass  at  all. 

For  the  first  25  miles  from  Colon  the  channel  would  be 
largely  through  soft,  swampy  mud  and  not  through  rock. 
No  one  knows  whether  it  would  be  possible  to  dig  a  ditch 
50  to  90  feet  deep  through  such  material  and  prevent  the 
banks  from  constantly  caving  in  and  obstructing  the  chan- 
nel. Through  the  9  miles  of  the  Culebra  Cut  the  ditch 
\vould  be  through  rock  and  from  100  to  373  feet  in  depth. 
No  such  enormous  rock  cut  as  this  has  even  been  accom- 
plished. 

It  is  estimated  that  this  sea-level  plan  would  require  the 
excavation  of  at  least  300,000,000  cubic  yards  of  earth  and 
rock.  Each  cubic  yard  would  weigh  about  a  ton.  Can 
we  picture  to  ourselves  such  a  great  mass?  If  it  were  piled 
up  into  a  wall  3  feet  wide  and  20  feet  high,  it  would  extend 


190  LOCK  PLAN 

entirely  around  the  world  at  the  equator!  To  dig  this 
canal  would  require  fully  eighteen  years  of  labor  and  between 
$500,000,000  and  $600,000,000  in  money.  The  mind  is 
staggered  by  these  figures. 

Now,  if  we  look  at  Map  VIII,  we  can  see  what  the  pro- 
posed lock  canal  is  like  and  how  it  differs  from  the  sea- 
level  type.  In  route  and  length  it  would  be 
at° Panama  tne  same  as  the  sea-level  plan.  There  would 
be  the  same  channels  also  in  the  harbors  at 
both  ends.  Beginning  first  at  Colon  a  nearly  straight 
channel  is  to  be  dug  at  sea-level  for  i\  miles  to  Gatun.  It 
is  to  be  41  feet  deep  and  500  feet  wide.  At  Gatun  a  great 
dam  will  be  built  across  the  valley  of  the  Chagres.  This 
will  form  an  artificial  lake  165  square  miles  in  area.  The 
surface  of  the  water  in  Gatun  Lake,  as  it  will  be  called, 
will  be  85  feet  above  sea-level.  Beside  the  Gatun  dam,  it 
is  proposed  to  place  a  duplicate  flight  of  three  locks  to  raise 
and  lower  vessels  this  distance  of  85  feet.  For  23  miles 
beyond  Gatun  the  channel  will  be  through  the  lake  and 
from  500  to  1,000  feet  in  width  and  from  45  to  85  feet  in 
depth.  The  same  water  level  continues  through  the  Cule- 
bra  Cut  to  the  Pedro  Miguel  Locks,  and  here  the  channel 
is  to  be  from  300  to  500  feet  wide.  At  Pedro  Miguel  one 
lock  in  duplicate  will  raise  or  lower  vessels  30  feet.  Below 
it  is  the  little  Miraflores  Lake  and  just  beyond  it  is  to  be 
a  duplicate  flight  of  two  locks  with  a  combined  lift  of  55 
feet.  Then  comes  4  miles  of  sea-level  channel  500  feet  wide 


THE   CANAL   ROUTE 


191 


PEDRO  MIGUEL  L 

Mira/lores    Lake 
MIRAFLORES   LOCKS 


MAP  VIII. — ROUTE  or  CANAL  AND  RAILROAD. 


192 


FRIENDS  AND   ENEMIES 


and  45  feet  deep  to  the  waters  of  the  Pacific.     A  simple  dia- 
gram of  this  plan  may  help  us  to  remember  the  figures. 

Its  enemies  have  made  the  following  objections  to  the 
lock  type  of  canal  for  Panama, — first,  that  the  Gatun  dam 
will  rest  on  an  unsafe  foundation  of  earth;  second,  that 


is 


ATLANTIC 
SEA 


GATUN      LAKE 


2  3  M,les 


^ULEBRACUT         |^ 


DIAGRAM  SHOWING  LOCK  TYPE  OF  CANAL  AT  PANAMA. 

the  locks  are  so  much  greater  in  size  than  any  ever  built 
that  serious  accidents  might  happen  in  them  to  injure 
vessels  and  hinder  traffic;  third,  that  the  locks  would 
delay  the  vessels  in  transit;  fourth,  that  they  might  be 
destroyed  by  earthquakes,  and  fifth,  that  an  enemy  with 
guns  or  dynamite  might  so  injure  them  in  time  of  war  as 
to  put  the  canal  out  of  commission  for  many  months  or  even 
years. 

The  friends  of  the  lock  type  of  canal  declare  that  these 
supposed  dangers  either  do  not  exist  or  are  unimportant. 
They  think  that  the  lock  canal  will  have  many  advantages. 
It  is  estimated  that  it  can  be  built  in  one  half  the  time  re- 
quired for  the  sea-level  canal, — that  is,  in  about  nine  years. 
It  will  cost  at  least  $200,000,000  less.  It  will  require  only 
one  half  the  excavation.  Dangerous  earthquakes,  they  say, 


THE  FINAL  DECISION  193 

do  not  occur  on  the  Isthmus.  And  because  vessels  can 
travel  at  full  speed  in  Gatun  Lake,  and  will  be  delayed  but 
three  hours  in  the  locks,  the  total  time  of  transit  will  be  no 
more  than  in  the  narrow  and  crooked  sea-level  canal. 

Most  important  of  all  the  advantages,  we  are  told,  is  the 
great  Gatun  lake.  It  will  be  so  large  that  the  Chagres 
floods  that  pour  into  it  will  affect  its  level  no  more  than 
would  a  cup  of  water  poured  into  a  tub.  The  Chagres 
river  will  thus  serve  merely  to  supply  the  water  necessary 
to  operate  the  locks.  As  one  well-known  engineer  has 
said,  the  lock  canal  will  transform  the  Chagres  river  "from 
a  dangerous  enemy  into  an  excellent  friend." 

All  these  points  and  many  others  scarcely  less  impor- 
tant -were  carefully  considered  by  Congress  during  the 
winter  of  1905-6.  Though  a  majority  of  the  Decision  in 
members  of  the  Board  of  Consulting  Engi-  Favor  of  a 

0  °  Lock  Canal 

neers  voted  for  the  sea-level  type,  both  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Taft  favored  the  lock  canal.  On  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1906,  President  Roosevelt,  in  a  message  to  Con- 
gress, declared,  "In  my  judgment  a  lock  canal  is  advis- 
able." At  the  same  time  Mr.  Taft  wrote  of  the  sea-level 
canal  that  "the  time  and  cost  of  constructing  such  a  canal 
are  in  effect  prohibitory."  After  much  discussion  Congress 
finally  adopted  the  same  view  and,  on  June  29,  1906,  voted 
to  build  the  lock  type  of  canal  at  Panama.  Since  that  date 
the  work  done  on  the  canal  has  more  and  more  clearly 
shown  the  wisdom  of  this  choice. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

BUILDING   THE   CANAL 

To  many  of  us  the  study  of  types  of  canals  will  be  rather 
tiresome  and  the  figures  hard  to  remember.  Instead  of 
carrying  this  on  any  further,  let  us  go  out  for  a  day's  trip 
to  the  real  canal  work.  It  will  be  much  more  interesting 
to  see  the  machines  and  men  busy  on  the  great  ditch.  If 
we  do  succeed  in  remembering  some  facts  about  the  lock 
type,  we  shall  understand  more  easily  what  they  are  trying 
to  do. 

Scarcely  two  miles  from  the  City  of  Panama  is  the 
Pacific  end  of  the  canal.  It  comes  out  into  a  large  bay  or 
harbor  at  the  base  of  Ancon  hill.  This  is  called  the  Port  of 
Ancon.  At  the  mouth  of  the  canal  is  a  small  town  named 
La  Boca,  or  Balboa,  as  it  has  more  recently  been  called. 
There  is  a  good  chance  that  we  shall  see  in  the  harbor 
near  Balboa  some  old  French  ladder  dredges. 

Dredges 

They  have  been  repaired  by  our  men  and  put 
to  work  at  the  task  of  cutting  out  a  channel  from  the  canal 
mouth  to  deep  water  in  the  Pacific.  Each  dredge  has  a 
series  of  large  buckets  on  a  sort  of  endless  chain.  A  power- 
ful arm  carries  the  buckets  to  the  bottom  and  when  they 

are  set  in  motion  they  each  cut  away  and  bring  up  and 

194 


OLD-STYLE  DREDGES 


dump  a  small  load  of  earth.  The  material  which  is  thus 
dredged  up  is  loaded  on  scows  and  carried  where  needed, 
or  more  often  carried  far  out  to  sea  and  dumped. 

There  is  also  another  old  style  dredge  at  work.     It  is 


AN  OLD  FRENCH  LADDER  DREDGE — LA  BOCA. 

known  as  a  dipper  dredge,  because  it  has  a  very  long  arm 
with  a  sort  of  dipper  on  the  end.  With  this  it  reaches  down 
and  scoops  up  the  bottom. 

If  we  count  the  channels  to  be  dug  in  the  harbors  at 
Colon  and  Balboa,  as  well  as  the  low  swampy  parts  of  the 
canal  at  each  end,  we  shall  find  that  nearly  sixteen  miles  will 
be  cut  out  by  dredges.  This  method  is  so  much  cheaper 


196 


RAPID   WORK 


AMERICAN   SUCTION   DREDGES 


197 


than   any  other  way  of   digging,   that   our   engineers   use 
dredges  wherever  possible. 

The  American  suction  dredges  are  much  more  powerful 
than  the  old  French  machines.  What  odd-looking  affairs 
they  are,  like  great,  floating  docks  with  engines  and  ma- 
chinery on  board  and  with  a  deck  and  rooms  above  for  the 
workmen  to  live  in.  Each  dredge  has  a  tube  stretching 


MEN  AT  WORK  DRILLING  HOLES  FOR  THE  CHARGES.' 


away  from  it  like  an  enormously  long  tail.  Upon  inquiry, 
we  shall  find  that  each  dredge  has  large  suction  pipes  that 
extend  downward  to  the  soft  muddy  bottom.  This  is 
rapidly  sucked  up  through  the  pipes  and  then  forced  out 


198 


BLASTING 


through  the  long  tube  and  deposited  wherever  it  is  desired. 
When  the  bottom  is  too  hard  for  the  suction  pipes  to  draw 
up,  it  is  often  loosened  by  charges  of  dynamite.  This 


LOADING  DRILL  HOLES  WITH  DYNAMITE. 

method  of  digging  by  dredges  costs  only  about  eleven  cents 
per  cubic  yard.  As  fast  as  a  dredge  cuts  out  the  channel 
it  is  floated  along  from  place  to  place.  In  very  hard  soil 
or  rock,  a  dredge  is  of  no  value. 

Another  interesting  feature  of  the  work  is  the  blasting. 
It  would   be  safe  to  say  that  without  power- 
ful explosives    the  canal    could  not  be    built. 
Dynamite  is  the  chief  one  used.    In  the  year  1908,  8,850,000 


Blasting 


DRILLING 


199 


pounds  were  shipped  from  the  United  States  and  used  in  the 
Canal  Zone. 

All  along  the  portions  of  the  canal  that  extend  through 
rock  and  hard  soil,  we  can  see  the  men  at  work  drilling 
the  holes  for  the  charges.  Some  are  made  only  3  or  4 
feet  deep,  others  are  10  or  20  times  that  depth.  These 
drills  are  about  the  noisiest  machines  on  the  canal.  The 
clatter  of  a  half  dozen  of  them  is  almost  deafening.  They 


EXPLOSION  IN  PROGRESS,   MATACHIN. — 19  HOLES,  11,200   POUNDS  DYNAMITE, 
17,980  CUBIC  YARDS  DISPLACED,  JANUARY  10,  1908. 

are  worked  by  compressed  air  from  the  power  plants.     It 
is  brought  in  long  pipes  to  each  drill. 
Usually  many  holes  are   drilled   for  each  explosion  of 


200 


POWDER  MEN 


dynamite.  They  are  skillfully  arranged  by  the  "  powder 
men"  to  get  the  greatest  possible  effect.  When  the  holes 
are  all  charged,  the  drills  are  moved  away  and  the  workmen 
retire  to  a  safe  distance.  An  electric  wire  extends  to  a  cap 


LOADING  DIRT  TRAIN  BY  STEAM  SHOVEL. 

in  each  hole,  and  pressure  on  a  single  button  sets  off  the 
entire  charge.  A  rumbling  sound  is  heard.  The  earth  in 
the  neighborhood  heaves  and  trembles.  And  great  masses 
of  mud  and  water  and  rock  are  thrown  into  the  air.  It  is 
often  the  case  that  a  number  of  tons  of  dynamite  are 
exploded  at  one  time.  Imagine  an  amount  of  rock  larger 
than  a  six-story  building  torn  away  by  one  explosion,  and 


STEAM   SHOVELS 


2OI 


broken  and  churned  into  such  small  pieces  that  it  can  be  at 
once  loaded  on  cars  and  carried  away. 

In  the  care  and  use  of  the  dynamite  the  workmen  have 
become  very  expert.  It  is  true  that  every  now  and  then 
the  charge  in  some  particular  hole  fails  to  go  off.  This 
fact  will  probably  escape  the  notice  of  the  men.  When 
later  the  hole  is  disturbed  an  explosion  may  occur  and  cause 
much  injury  or 
even  death.  The 
hospitals  treat 
many  men  injured 
by  the  blasts.  But 
on  the  whole  the 
serious  accidents 
are  surprisingly 
few. 

When  the  soil  or 
rock  is  shattered 
by  the  blast,  the 
steam  shovels  can 
dig  it  up  and  load  it 
on  the  dump  cars. 
Long  trains  of  these  loaded  cars  are  constantly  being  drawn 
out  of  the  great  ditch.  They  will  be  dumped  at  some  con- 
venient point  and  the  cars  rushed  back  for  fresh  loads. 

There  are  about  one  hundred  steam  shovels  at  work  on 
the  canal.     It  is  certainly  fascinating  to  watch  one  of  them. 


STEAM  SHOVEL — SHOWING  ARM  AND  DIPPER. 


202  A   CLOSER  VIEW 

Running  on  a  little  track  of  its  own,  it  slowly  moves  for- 
ward, as  it  eats  its  way  through  the  broken  rock  or  soil. 
Let  us  go  up  close  to  it  in  order  to  see  exactly 
shovels  now  it  is  built  and  how  it  works.     Note  the  let- 

ters I.  C.  C.  on  its  side.  These  mark  it  as  the 
property  of  the  Isthmian  Canal  Commission.  And  note 
also,  the  smaller  letters  which  tell  that  it  was  built  at  Marion, 


A  FIVE-YARD  DIPPER. 


Ohio,  or  at  South  Milwaukee.  The  shovel  itself  seems  to 
be  somewhat  like  a  long  railroad  flat  car.  Covering  a  large 
part  of  the  car  is  a  sort  of  iron  hood.  Inside  of  this  hood 
is  the  powerful  engine  and  the  wheels  and  gears  that  control 


A  GIANT  AT  WORK 


204  "ALMOST   HUMAN" 

the  shovel.  Attached  to  the  forward  end  of  the  car  is  an 
immense  steel  arm.  This  arm  can  be  swung  freely  from 
side  to  side  by  large  chains  connected  with  the  machinery 
inside  the  hood.  Swung  from  the  arm  is  a  great  shovel  or 
dipper,  as  it  is  called.  On  the  larger  steam  shovels  the 
dipper  is  of  sufficient  size  to  hold  five  cubic  yards  of  ma- 
terial. This  means  nearly  five  tons  of  earth  or  rock.  The 
bottom  of  the  dipper  can  be  swung  open  at  will,  in  order 
to  dump  out  the  contents  upon  the  flat  cars.  On  a  seat  at 
the  base  of  the  long  arm  sits  the  man  who  guides  its  move- 
ments. 

As  we  stand  watching,  a  locomotive  pushes  up  beside 
the  shovel  a  long  train  of  empty  flat  cars.  With  a  loud 
clatter  of  chains  and  the  hiss  of  escaping  steam  the  dipper 
is  lowered.  See  the  almost  human  way  in  which  it  digs 
in  its  teeth  and  comes  up  again  full  of  the  rough,  broken 
material.  The  long  arm  swings  the  dipper  over  a  flat  car, 
the  bottom  opens,  and  the  load  is  dropped  on  the  car  at 
the  exact  spot  where  it  is  wanted.  And  back  again  goes 
the  dipper  for  another  load.  Perhaps  this  time  it  is  a  single 
great  rock  that  is  to  be  lifted.  To  get  beneath  this  rock 
and  to  nicely  balance  it  on  the  dipper  requires  such  wonder- 
ful skill  on  the  part  of  the  steam  shovel  men  as  only  long 
practice  can  give.  Up  comes  the  rock,  nevertheless.  Before 
we  realize  it,  the  flat  car  is  loaded  and  another  is  pushed 
into  its  place.  And  so  the  work  goes  on  from  hour  to  hour 
with  much  noise  and  steam  and  smoke. 


THROUGH  THE   ROCKS 


205 


206  THE  AMERICAN   SPIRIT 

Upon  the  locomotive  engineers  depends  the   important 

work  of  supplying  empty  cars  for  the  steam  shovels  to  fill. 

Unless  there  are  cars  at  hand  the  shovels  must 

Rewinds*01         st°P'     ^0   there   has   grown   up   among   these 

engineers  a  rivalry  to  hold  the  record  for  the 

largest  number  of  cars  handled  in  a  day  or  week  or  month. 

Each  engineer  takes  unusual  pride  in  his  engine  and  his 

record.     Each  is  determined  to  beat  the  others. 

This  same  rivalry  is  especially  keen  among  the  steam 
shovel  men.  Every  crew  is  anxious  to  hold  the  record  for 
the  largest  amount  of  material  excavated.  Each  shovel  is 
pushed  to  the  limit  of  its  capacity.  In  an  eight-hour  day  one 
of  them  has  been  known  to  excavate  and  to  load  on  cars 
almost  3,500  cubic  yards.  This  means  about  160  car  loads 
or  one  car  every  three  minutes.  In  the  Canal  Record,  a 
paper  issued  weekly  in  the  Zone,  the  best  shovel  records 
are  published.  Take  as  an  example  the  issue  of  May  26, 
1909.  More  than  a  column  of  the  paper  was  occupied  by 
the  records  of  the  steam  shovels  for  the  month  of  April. 
The  following  is  a  single  paragraph: 

The  record  for  a  single  day's  excavation  was  broken  on 
April  8,  when  57  shovels  took  out  78,559  cubic  yards,  an 
average  of  1,387  cubic  yards  per  shovel.  The  best  day's 
record  for  one  shovel  during  the  month  was  on  April  12, 
when  No.  266  in  the  Culebra  District  excavated  3,340 
cubic  yards. 


"GOLD   MEN"   AT  WORK 


207 


We  can  easily  understand  the  pride  which  the  crew  of 
shovel  No.  266  took  in  their  shovel  and  their  record,  and 
the  struggle  which  they  would  make  to  continue  to  hold  it. 

We  cannot  fail  to  note,  as  we  examine  the  men  at  work, 
that  the  same  spirit  seems  to  animate  all  the  "  Gold  Men." 
The  American  laborers  know  that  they  are  down  here  on 
the  Isthmus  for  a  great  purpose.  When  off  duty  they  are' 


STEAM  SHOVEL  AT  WORK  ON  THE  SITE  FOR  THE  PEDRO  MIGUEL  LOCKS. 

a  joking,  jolly  lot  of  men.  But  when  at  work  the  set,  stern 
expressions  on  their  faces  show  that  they  know  that  their 
work  requires  the  best  that  is  in  them.  In  some  ways  the 
great  steam  shovels  and  their  crews,  more  than  anything 


2o8  THE  PAY  TRAIN 

else  in  the  Canal  Zone,  seem  to  represent  that  fine,  deter- 
mined, fearless,  and  energetic  American  spirit,  that  we 
believe  will  conquer  all  difficulties  in  the  end  and  complete 
the  canal. 


LONG  TRAINS  OF  FLAT  CARS  AT  BAS  OBISPO. 

Interesting  to  spectators  as  well  as  to  the  workmen  is 
the  coming  of  the  pay  train  each  month.  Though  there 
Forty-four  are  between  30,000  and  40,000  men  at  work 
Tons  of  daily,  the  entire  length  of  the  canal  is  so  great 

Silver 

that  only  a  few  can  be  seen  at  any  one  place. 
We  shall  find  no  better  opportunity  to  observe  large  groups 
of  the  men  than  at  the  stations  where  the  pay  train  stops. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  also  the  large  amount  of  coin  han- 


FORTY-FOUR  TONS   OF   SILVER  209 

died  by  the  paymaster.  The  silver  pay  roll  amounts  to 
nearly  $1,600,000  in  Panamanian  money  per  month.  Each 
$1,000  weighs  fifty-five  pounds.  The  total,  therefore,  equals 
forty- four  tons.  We  are  told  that  five  men  are  almost  con- 
stantly at  work  counting  this  money  and  putting  it  up  in  rolls 
convenient  for  payment. 

Only  those  who  visited  the  canal  as  far  back  as  1904  can 


COMING  OF  THE  PAY  TRAIN." 


fully  appreciate   all   that  has  been   done   along  the  route 
to  make  it  a  comfortable  and  healthful  place 

Culebra 

in   which  to   work.     When   we  reach   such  a 

neat,   clean,  well-built  town  as  Culebra,  for  instance,  we 


2IO 


NEAT,   CLEAN,   WELL-BUILT 


THE   MONSTER   DAM  211 

can  scarcely  realize  that  here  was  once  a  dense  jungle  unfit 
for  human  habitation.  Now  we  find  a  town  of  5,000 
people.  It  has  its  own  electric  light  plant,  water  works, 
sewage  system,  library,  and  club  houses.  The  streets  are 
clean  and  the  houses  dry  and  comfortable.  So  it  is  all 
along  the  line. 

Of  course,  the  two  points  of  greatest  interest  are  the 
Gatun  Dam  and  the  Culebra  Cut.  The  monster  dam  is 
to  be  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  across  the 

Gatun  Dam 

Chagres  valley.  It  is  difficult  to  find  a  point 
from  which  we  can  view  the  whole  of  it.  Let  us  take  our 
stand  on  the  hillside  near  the  cut  for  the  Gatun  locks. 
In  the  distance  are  the  hills  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
valley,  and  spread  out  before  us  is  the  valley  itself  with 
the  Chagres  river  winding  back  and  forth  along  it.  At  our 
feet  is  the  cut  for  the  flight  of  three  locks.  They  will 
have  a  usable  length  of  1,000  feet,  a  width  of  no  feet,  and 
a  total  lift  of  85  feet.  There  are  no  locks  of  this  size  in  the 
world.  Though  the  rock  cut  for  these  locks  is  completed, 
the  work  of  putting  in  the  concrete  walls  and  bottom  and 
the  machinery  will  probably  require  more  time  than  to 
complete  all  the  remainder  of  the  canal.  A  steady  stream 
of  concrete  is  being  poured  into  the  cut  for  all  the  twenty- 
four  hours  of  each  day.  Not  until  this  work  is  finished  can 
ships  cross  the  Isthmus. 

The  dam  itself  is  beginning  to  rise  across  the  valley. 
Dredges  and  steam  shovels  are  sending  in  material  for  it 


212 


BUILDING  A  LAKE 


"LIKE  A   SMALL  MOUNTAIN" 


213 


in  large  quantities.  Every  load  will  be  needed,  for  the  great 
dam  is  to  rise  115  feet  above  sea  level  and  will  be  100  feet 
wide  at  the  top  and  1,900  feet  at  the  widest  part  of  the 
bottom.  It  will  be  like  a  small  mountain  running  directly 


EXCAVATING  FOR  GATUN  LOCKS. 

across  the  Chagres  valley;  and,  as  President  Taft  says, 
"will  be  as  solid  as  the  everlasting  hills."  With  all  its  floods 
the  Chagres  will  require  a  whole  year's  time  to  fill  to  the 
required  level  the  basin  thus  made.  Yet  some  day  there 
will  be  a  fine,  deep  lake  behind  this  dam.  The  largest 
vessels  can  push  through  it  at  full  speed  without  the  slightest 
danger. 


2i4  THE   GREAT  DITCH 

But  the  most  impressive  sight  of  all  is  the  Culebra  Cut. 

This  is  the  most  gigantic  cut  ever  attempted  by  engineering 

science.     Culebra  is  the  backbone  of  the  Isth- 

Culebra  Cut 

mus.  Here  the  fight  with  nature  is  fiercest. 
Over  fifty  steam  shovels  and  their  determined  crews  are 
making  the  attack.  For  nine  miles  the  great  ditch  must 
be  dug  down  through  the  solid  rock,  in  places  to  a  depth 
of  more  than  300  feet.  The  shovels  are  taking  out  from 


EXCAVATION  FOR  GATUN  LOCKS  COMPLETED. 

one  million  to  one  and  one  half  million  cubic  yards  per  month. 
Yet  how  slowly  the  ditch  grows! 

Let  us  look  down  into  it  from  a  point  opposite  Gold  Hill. 


THROUGH   SOLID   ROCK 


215 


Here  the  cut  will  be  deepest.  It  is  already  so  enormous 
that  the  workmen  on  the  farther  side  appear  like  pigmies. 
How  many  steam  shovels  and  trains  of  cars  can  you  count? 


"Mosx  IMPRESSIVE  OF  ALL  is  THE  CULEBRA  CUT." 

Can  you  see  the  highest  line  of  cutting  on  the  slope  of  Gold 
Hill?  That  is  the  level  where  the  French  started  their 
work.  Below  this  is  the  American  cut.  More  than  eighty 
feet  must  still  be  taken  out.  Nowhere  can  we  get  a  better 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  our  Government's  great  task  at 
Panama  than  right  here  opposite  Gold  Hill. 

Yet  we  are  told  that  the  Culebra  Cut  is  more  than  half 
finished.     On  this  particular  nine  miles  of  the  canal  the 


216  PROGRESS   IN   EXCAVATION 

halfway  mark  of  American  excavation  was  passed  on 
October  23,  1909.  The  record  for  excavation  in  Culebra 
Cut  on  that  date  stood  as  follows: 

Excavation  by  French,  1882  to  1904  . .   24,588,520  cubic  yards 
Excavation  by  Americans,  1904  to  1909,  39,002,299 
Excavation  remaining 39,002,299  " 

If  the  present  rate  of  excavation  can  be  maintained,  this  part  of 
the  canal  should  be  completed  by  the  end  of  the  year  1913. 

Early  in  the  same  month  of  October,  1909,  the  grand 
total  of  American  excavation  throughout  the  entire  length 
of  the  canal  had  reached  87,494,537  cubic  yards.  This 
was  half  of  the  total  excavation  that  was  necessary  when 
the  United  States  took  possession  to  complete  the  canal 
from  sea  to  sea. 

All  along  the  route  the  work  is  progressing  rapidly.  At 
no  time  since  our  government  took  possession  has  the  num- 
ber of  laborers  been  so  great  as  during  the  autumn  of  1909. 
Fewer  changes  are  taking  place  in  the  force,  and  a  larger 
number  seem  to  have  come  with  the  intention  of  working 
for  a  long  time  in  the  Zone. 

Already  there  are  small  portions  of  the  canal  in  which 
the  excavation  is  nearing  completion.  Five  miles  of  the 
channel  in  the  Bay  of  Panama  are  open  to  navigation,  as 
far  as  the  wharves  at  Balboa.  On  November  i,  1909,  a 
steam  shovel  was  working  on  the  bottom  of  the  canal  near 
Mindi  at  forty-one  feet  below  sea  level. 


FORECAST   OF  THE   END  217 

It  is  the  construction  of  the  great  concrete  locks  at  Gatun 
and  at  Pedro  Miguel  that  is  expected  to  delay  the  opening 
of  the  canal  until  1915.  How  tremendous  this  concrete 
work  is  to  be,  is  easy  to  understand  when  we  are  told  that 
at  Gatun  alone  it  is  estimated  that  2,250,000  barrels  of 
cement  will  be  required.  Nevertheless  the  end  is  now 
surely  in  sight.  The  canal  is  more  than  half  finished.  By 
1915  we  may  hope  to  see  it  entirely  completed. 

On  November  22,  1909,  Mr.  Tawney,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, sent  to  Colonel  Goethals  the  following  message: 

'''  The  Committee  on  Appropriations  extend  to  you  and 
your  associates  their  hearty  congratulations  on  your  splendid 
organization  and  the  marvelous  progress  you  have  made  the 
past  two  years." 

When  we  finally  leave  Culebra  Cut  and  return  by  train 
to  Panama  City,  we  shall  surely  feel  that  our  day  on  the 
canal  line  has  been  well  spent.  We  shall  have  a  new  interest 
in  American  methods  and  American  machinery  and  a  new 
pride  in  American  pluck  and  energy.  F.  S.  Brereton,  a 
distinguished  Captain  in  the  English  army,  describes  con- 
ditions in  the  Canal  Zone  as  ua  marvel  of  organization, 
and  something  to  be  carefully  noted  and  remembered  by 
those  who  in  future  have  similar  work  to  undertake.'7  The 
Canal  Zone  is,  indeed,  the  "best  great  construction  camp 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  one  of  which  every  Ameri- 
can should  be  proud." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  MEN  BEHIND  THE  CANAL 

Two  names  will  be  forever  connected  with  the  Panama 
canal.  These  names  are  Roosevelt  and  Taft.  No  two 

Americans  have  been  more  closely  associated 
anxT-raft  witn  the  work  of  building  the  canal  or  know 

more  of  its  inner  history.  It  was  Mr.  Roose- 
velt's courage,  energy,  and  breadth  of  view  that  led  our 
Government  to  begin  the  work.  His  wisdom  guided  the 
Canal  Commission  in  the  early  and  difficult  years  of  prep- 
aration and  labor.  From  its  beginning,  too,  the  canal 
has  been  under  the  special  care  of  Mr.  Taft.  It  owes  much 
to  his  honesty,  devotion,  and  good  judgment.  Now  that 
he  is  President,  the  work,  so  well  begun,  will  continue  to 
receive  his  care  and  attention.  Both  men  have  been  fitted 
by  a  personal  knowledge  of  Panama,  by  a  long  study  of  the 
problems  there  presented,  and  by  the  possession  of  the 
best  traits  of  American  character,  to  lead  the  people  of  the 
United  States  in  this  great  enterprise.  The  canal  will  be 

a  lasting  monument  to  both  of  them. 

The  Workers 

But  it  will  be  a  monument  also  to  the  great 
company  of  Americans  who  have  put  their  hands  to  the  rough 

work  of  digging  at  Panama.     They  have  braved  the  dangers 

218 


THE   FIRST   COMMISSION  219 

of  a  strange  climate  and  strange  diseases.     Their  strength 
and  faithfulness  will  build  the  canal. 

Great  credit,  too,  is  due  to  the  members  of  the  Isthmian 
Canal  Commission.  Since  March  of  1904  the  work  has 
been  under  their  control.  They  have  cleared 

Isthmian 

the  ground,  laid  the  plans,  hired  the  men,  canal  com- 
purchased  the  machinery,  and  directed  the 
work.  They  have  met  and  conquered  the  difficulties. 
And  hardest  of  all,  they  have  borne  much  undeserved  and 
bitter  criticism.  The  American  people  are  often  very 
impatient  and  very  unfair. 

A  complete  account  of  the  Canal  Commission  would 
make  too  long  a  story  for  our  attention  here.  Yet  we  should 
know  a  few  facts  concerning  it.  The  Commission  ap- 
pointed in  1904  was  composed  of  seven  members,  with  John 
G.  Walker  as  chairman.  The  latter  was  a  Rear-Admiral 
of  the  United  States  Navy,  on  the  retired  list.  He  had  been 
at  the  head  of  two  former  commissions  which  had  been 
sent  to  study  canal  routes  at  Nicaragua  and  Panama,  and 
was  familiar  with  the  general  subject  of  the  canal.  Asso- 
ciated with  him  was  Major-General  George  W.  Davis  and 
five  expert  engineers.  The  Commission  thus  formed  held 
office  for  about  one  year.  In  July  of  the  same  year  John 
F.  Wallace,  an  eminent  engineer  of  Chicago,  was  appointed 
Chief  Engineer.  Dr.  W.  C.  Gorgas,  Colonel  in  the  Medical 
Corps  of  the  United  States  Army,  was  made  Sanitary  Officer 
of  the  Canal  Zone.  This  was  the  group  of  men  which  be- 


220 


THE  COMMISSION  OF   1909 


CHANGES  221 

gan  the  slow  and  difficult  task  of  preparation  with  which  we 
are  already  acquainted.  They  worked  against  discouraging 
odds  both  at  Panama  and  at  Washington,  but  accomplished 
much  of  great  value. 

The  Commission  was  reorganized  in  April  of  1905. 
Five  of  the  old  Commission  resigned  and  five  new  men  took 
their  places.  The  new  Chairman  was  Mr.  Theodore  P. 
Shonts,  ot  Illinois,  a  railroad  president.  Mr.  Wallace  con- 
tinued as  Chief  Engineer  but  was  now  also  a  member  of  the 
Commission.  Under  this  new  control  the  work  was  contin- 
ued for  two  years  more,  except  that  Mr.  Wallace  resigned  in 
June,  1905.  Mr.  John  F.  Stevens  took  his  place.  Both 
men  made  first-class  records  on  the  Isthmus. 

On  April  i,  1907,  a  change  in  the  Commission  was 
again  made.  There  were  new  conditions  at  Panama  that 
made  the  change  seem  necessary.  This  time  the  position 
of  Chairman  and  Chief  Engineer  were  combined  as  one 
office,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  W.  Goethals,  of  the 
United  States  Army  Engineer  Corps,  was  appointed  to  fill  the 
place.  Furthermore  the  members  of  the  new  Commission 
were  ordered  to  make  their  headquarters  at  Panama  instead 
of  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  in  order  that  they  might  be  in  more 
close  personal  touch  with  the  work.  Colonel  Gorgas  was 
made  a  member  of  this  Commission  and  continued  in 
charge  of  the  sanitary  work  in  the  Zone. 

Lieutenant- Colonel  Goethals  was  graduated  from  West 
Point  in  1880,  and  became  an  Engineer  Officer  in  the  United 


222  CHAIRMAN  AND   CHIEF   ENGINEER 

States  Army.     Before  the  opening  of  the  Spanish  War  he 

had  had  many  years  of  experience  in  the  construction  of  dams 

and  locks  and  had  become   an   accomplished 

Goethals 

and  expert  engineer.  During  the  war  he  was 
made  Chief  Engineer  of  the  First  Army  Corps.  He  was 
detailed  to  the  General  Staff  in  1903.  As  Chairman  and 
Chief  Engineer  at  Panama  he  has  not  only  won  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  all  who  have  come  in  contact  with  him, 
but  also  has  made  greater  progress  in  canal  work  than  was 
ever  thought  possible.  We  cannot  look  at  his  erect  figure 
and  fine  face  without  knowing  that  he  represents  the  very 
best  spirit  and  traditions  of  the  American  Army. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

FUTURE  OF  PANAMA  AND  THE  CANAL 

If  we  were  able  to  look  into  the  future  and  to  know  what 
the  next  four  hundred  years  of  Panama  history  are  to  be, 
we  might  find  a  story  quite  as  romantic  and  interesting 
as  has  been  the  history  of  the  past  four  hundred  years. 
Though  this  pleasure  is  in  part  denied  to  us,  we  may  feel 
sure  of  at  least  a  few  things  that  the  years  will  bring. 

The   days  of  pirates  like   Henry  Morgan   are  passed. 
The  City  of  Panama  will  never  again  need  the  protection 
of  its  old,  moss-covered  walls  to  save  it  from 
bands  of  robbers  and  cut-throats.     Wars  may  plnlma° 

come  again  and  the  Bay  of  Panama  be  filled 
with  battleships,  but  homes  will  be  safe  and  peaceful  trade 
will  take  the  place  of  plunder.  Bancroft  Library 

What  a  long  tale  of  death  by  murder  and  disease  has  filled 
the  past  four  hundred  years!  This  cannot  be  in  the  future. 
As  the  jungle  is  cut  away  and  the  swamps  are  drained,  as 
roads  are  built  and  towns  grow  up,  we  may  hope  to  see  the 
whole  of  Panama  as  healthful  as  is  the  Canal  Zone  today. 
Colonel  Gorgas  has  exploded  the  idea  that  white  men  from 
Europe  and  America  cannot  live  with  safety  in  Panama. 

In  fact,  American  brains  and  money  have  made  the  Canal 

223 


224  WILL   THE    CANAL   PAY? 

Zone  an  object  lesson  in  health  for  all  the  tropical  parts  of 
the  world. 

Coal  and  oil  and  the  precious  metals  are  known  to  lie 
buried  underneath  the  hills.  And  the  soil  is  splendidly  rich 
for  all  sorts  of  tropical  agriculture.  Men  are  sure  to  go  in 
larger  and  larger  numbers  to  make  their  homes  on  the 
Isthmus  and  to  open  the  mines  and  to  clear  the  ground. 
Travelers,  too,  will  stop  at  Panama,  especially  in  the  drier 
part  of  the  year,  to  see  the  wonders  of  the  canal  and  to 
enjoy  the  brilliant  tropical  beauty  of  the  land.  The  state  of 
Pennsylvania  has  a  population  of  6,000,000.  Panama  is 
two  thirds  as  large  but  has  now  only  350,000.  "The  time 
will  come,"  says  an  American  who  has  lived  for  more  than 
fifty  years  in  Panama,  "when  the  wild  region  now  included 
within  the  limits  of  the  Isthmus  will  be  transformed  into 
smiling  summer  lands  where  millions  will  find  homes." 

Panama  may  be  blessed  in  the  future  by  the  coming  of 
the  canal,  but  will  the  canal  itself  pay?  Let  us  see  what 
the  chances  are. 

A  common  way  of  measuring  the  size  of  a  vessel  is  to 
estimate  the  number  of  tons  of  cargo  that  it  carries. 
The  average  freight  steamer  of  today  is  thus  spoken  of  as 
of  about  2,500  tons  register.  The  greatest  ocean  liners  are 
of  more  than  30,000  tons  register.  The  charge,  or  toll, 
which  a  ship  is  obliged  to  pay  when  using  a  canal  is  a  fixed 
amount  per  registered  ton.  At  Suez  the  toll  has  been  $1.70 
per  ton  and  $2  in  addition  for  each  passenger.  To  pass 


IN   WAR   TIME  225 

through  the  Suez  Canal  costs  the  average  vessel  not  far 
from  $10,000.  Such  a  sum  seems  very  large,  and  yet  the 
total  cost  of  the  much  longer  trip  around  Cape  Good  Hope 
would  be  even  more.  Nearly  all  steam  vessels  bound  for 
the  ports  of  Asia  from  eastern  United  States  or  from  Europe 
pay  the  toll  and  use  the  Suez  Canal.  Since  it  was  opened 
its  total  receipts  have  been  over  $385,000,000.  Those  who 
own  it  have  been  richly  paid. 

Now,  whether  our  canal  at  Panama  will  bring  in  an 
equally  large  return  or  not,  no  one  can  say  with  certainty. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  the  first  ten  years 
will  show  receipts  of  $150,000,000.     But  this  Receipts 

depends  upon  the  toll  which  the  United  States 
will  charge  and  upon  the  growth  of  traffic  in  that  direction. 
It  does  not  seem  unreasonable  to  expect  a  large  profit  in 
future  years. 

To  the  United  States  in  time  of  war  the  canal  will  be  of 
great  value.  We  shall  need  no  longer  to  have  two  fleets 
of  battleships,  one  on  the  Pacific  and  one  on 
the  Atlantic,  and  separated  from  each  other 
by  the  whole  length  of  South  America.  By 
using  the  canal  one  large  fleet  can  guard  both  coasts  with 
equal  freedom.  Of  course,  the  canal  must  be  protected, 
but  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  this  cannot  be  easily 
done.  All  our  interests  and  possessions  on  the  Pacific  will 
feel  at  once  the  military  effect  of  the  canal.  By  increas- 
ing the  power  of  the  United  States  in  that  ocean  we  may 


226 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICE 


IN  TIMES   OF   PEACE  227 

fairly  hope  that  it  will  contribute  much  to  the  peace  of  the 
world. 

But  how  will  the  canal  affect  the  United  States  in  times 
of  peace?  This  is  much  more  important.  We  note  first 
of  all  that  the  canal  will  make  our  eastern  and 

,,  ,.  Distances 

western  seacoasts  practically  one  coast  line,  shortened 
and  shorten  enormously  the  distance  between 
the  two.  A  vessel  that  now  leaves  San  Francisco  for  New 
York  by  way  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan  (Map  IX)  must 
travel  13,090  miles.  By  way  of  Panama  the  distance  will 
be  but  5,300  miles, — or  7,790  miles  saved.  In  the  same 
manner  more  than  5,000  miles  will  be  saved  between  our 
Pacific  ports  and  the  ports  of  Europe.  San  Francisco  will 
be  within  14  days  of  New  York,  by  steamers  making  16 
miles  an  hour,  instead  of  60  days,  and  within  21  days  of 
any  English  port,  instead  of  35.  This  will  make  possible 
a  great  saving  in  the  cost  of  shipping  goods  along  these 
routes.  Lumber,  fish,  grain,  and  fruit  from  the  Pacific 
states  can  reach  our  Atlantic  ports  or  the  ports  of  Europe 
and  can  be  sold  more  cheaply  and  with  greater  profit. 

The  canal  will  also  bring  the  Mississippi  valley  and  the 
Southern  and  Eastern  manufacturing  states  much  nearer 
to  the  rich  markets  of  eastern  Asia  and  of  the 
other  Pacific  countries, — especially  the  western        pacific  ^ 
coast  of  South  America.     One  half  the  popula- 
tion of  the  world  dwells  in  the  lands  that  border  the  Pacific. 
But  our  coal,  iron,  steel,  cotton,  and  all  manner  of  manu- 


228 


TRADE   ROUTES 


MAP  IX. — INFLUENCE  or  PANAMA  CANAL  ON  TRADE  ROUTES. 


WORLD-WIDE  FREEDOM   OF  TRADE  229 

factured  products,  cannot  now  reach  the  Pacific  markets  by 
water  so  cheaply  and  easily  as  can  the  products  of  Europe. 
Thus  we  now  lose  the  trade.  When  the  canal  is  opened, 
the  west  coast  of  South  America  will  be  3,000  miles  nearer 
to  our  ports  than  to  those  of  Europe,  and  splendid  new  op- 
portunities will  be  opened  to  our  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers. From  New  Orleans  to  Callao  in  Peru  is  10,100 
miles  by  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  but  by  way  of  Panama  it 
is  only  2,750.  From  New  York  to  Japan  or  China  by  Suez 
is  more  than  13,000  miles.  By  the  Panama  canal  the  dis- 
tance will  be  3,000  miles  shorter. 

Nor  will  the  United  States  be  the  only  gainer  by  this 
shortening  of  distances.  Far  greater  than  in  the  days  of 
Columbus  is  the  modern  demand  for  shorter  and  cheaper 
trade  routes.  For  more  than  four  hundred  years  the  whole 
world  has  desired  this  great  gateway  to  the  Pacific.  Panama 
and  Suez  long  kept  the  East  and  West  apart  and  obstructed 
world-wide  freedom  of  trade.  One  great  Isthmus  has  been 
conquered.  The  other  soon  will  be.  Now  that  we  are 
acquainted  with  Panama  and  its  canal,  we  can  join  heartily 
in  the  opinion  of  that  Chairman  of  the  Isthmian  Canal  Com- 
mission who  said, — "I  believe  that  when,  through  American 
generosity  and  under  American  control,  the  canal  shall  be 
thrown  open  to  the  commerce  of  the  world,  it  will  be  hailed, 
and  will  prove  to  be,  a  priceless  boon  to  all  mankind." 


INDEX 


Africa,  west  coast  of,  5 

Alligators,  66,  68,  103 

Amador,  Doctor,  Health  Officer  in 
Panama  City,  138,  139 

America,  North  and  South,  coasts 
of,  explored,  9 

American  battleship  Oregon,  128, 
129 

American  energy,  100 

American  engineers,  130 

Ancon,  city  of,  132;  port  of,  194 

Ancon  Hill,  78,  79 

Animal  life,  58 

Anopheles,  152,  153 

Ants,  wood-eating,  96 

Armadillo,  63,  64,  65 

Asia,  coast  of,  4;  waterway  to,  4; 
riches  of,  5;  shorter  route  to,  6; 
Portuguese  route  to,  9 

Atlantic  Ocean,  "Sea  of  Dark- 
ness," 3 

Atrato,  river,  12 

Bahia  de  los  Navios,  47 

Balboa  tree,  15 

Balboa,   Vasco  Nunez  de,    12,    13; 

escapes  from  Santo  Domingo,  1 5 ; 

discovers     Pacific     Ocean,      17; 

death  of,  18;  96,  194 
Baldwin,  James  L.,  101,  102,  103 
Bamboo  trees,  50 
Bananas,  54 
Bas  Obispo,  132 


Bay  of  Caledonia,  72,  74 

Bishop's  Palace,  Panama,  80 

Black  Swamp,  near  Colon,  103 

Blue  herons,  58 

Bocas  del  Toro,  56 

Bogota,  capital  of  Colombia,  36 

Bolivar,  Simon,  36 

Bread-fruit,  57 

Brereton,  F.  S.,  Captain  in  English 

army,  217 
Bridge     on     the     old     road     from 

Panama  to  Porto  Bello,  21 

Calentura,  jungle  fever,  101 

California,  discovery  of  gold  in,  98 

Callao,  229 

Canal  receipts,  225 

Canal,  St.  Mary's  Falls,  180 

Canal  Zone,  132,  133,  135,  137,  138, 

144,  i5J>  i52.  154,  i55,  156,  i74, 

186,  217,  223 
Cape  'Good  Hope,  5,  6 
Cathedral  bells,  Panama,  83 
Cathedral  of  Panama,  80 
Cedar  trees,  52 
Central  America,  waterways  across, 

108 
Chagres  River,  n,  29,  46,  50,  103, 

188,  193,  211,  213 
Chagrestown,  destroyed  by  pirates, 


1 

23I 


Charcoal  burners,  74 
Charles  V  of  Spain,  108 


232 


INDEX 


Chepo,  Rio,  50 

Church,  oldest  Spanish,  35 

Clark,  Captain,  commander  of 
battleship  Oregon,  128 

Clay,  Henry,  129 

Climate,  42,  44,  50 

Club-houses,  211 

Coal,  224 

Cocoanut  palm,  52,  77 

Cocoanuts,  52,  54 

Coco-bolo  tree1,  50 

Colombia,  province  of,  36;  de- 
clared independent  in  1811,  36 

Colon,  41,  46,  47 

Columbus,  Bartholomew,  6 

Columbus,  Christopher,  3,  4,  5; 
leaves  Portugal,  6 ;  voyages  of,  7  ; 
enemies  of,  7  ;  return  to  Spain,  1 1 

Comogre,  Indian  chief,  16 

Concrete  work,  217 

Congress,  United  States,  187 

Consulting  engineers,  board  of,  187 

Cordillera  de  Bando,  48 

Corinth  ship  canal,  178,  189 

Corsair,  J.  P.  Morgan's  yacht,  178, 
179 

Cortez,  Spanish  ruler  of  Mexico,  97 

Cristobal,  port  of  Colon,  132 

Cronstadt  ship  canal,  178 

Cuba,  7 

Culebra  Cut,  132,  188,  189,  190, 
211,  214,  215;  town  of,  209 

Dam  at  Gatun,  190 

Dampier,   Captain,   pirate,    28;   his 

experiences  with  monkeys,  61,  62 
Darien,  Gulf  of,  72,  no 
Davies,  pirate,  28 
Davis,    Major-General   George  W., 

132,  219 


De  Lesseps,  Count  Ferdinand,  114, 
116,  117,  118,  119,  120,  122,  123, 
125,  127;  statue  of,  127 
De  Lesseps'  Palace,  122,  125 
Diaz,  Bartholomew,  return  to  Por- 
tugal, 5 

Dipper,  195,  202,  204 
Disease,  conquest  of,  137 
Docks  in  the  Canal  Zone,  171 
Dredges,    194,    195,   196,    197,    198, 

312 
Drilling  holes  in  rock  for  blasting, 

199,  200 
Dwelling-houses   in    Panama,    159, 

163 
Dynamite  in  excavation,  198,  199, 


Earthquakes,  192 

Empire,  town  in  Panama,  132,  172, 

i73»  !74 

Engineers,  Board  of,  187 

English  attempts  to  control  water- 
ways on  the  Isthmus,  112 

Excavation,  rapid  work  in,  206; 
in  Culebra  Cut,  216;  to  be  com- 
pleted, 216 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  6 

Fire  department,  136,  150 

First  locomotive  across  the  Isth- 
mus, 106 

Flowers,  brilliant  coloring  of,  50 

Food  for  the  laborers,  162 

Forty-niners,  98,  99 

French  Canal  Company  at  Panama, 
113,  117,  119,  123,  171 

French  Canal,  opening  ceremonies 
of,  114;  failure  of,  123;  sale  of  to 
United  States,  131 


INDEX 


233 


French  machinery,  121,  124,  125, 
126,  171,  175 

Gargona,  132 

Gatun  dam,  190,  211 

Gatun  lake,  190 

Gatun  locks,  213,  214 

Gatun,  town  of,  132 

Genoa,  markets  of,  4 

Goethals,    Lieutenant  -  Colonel 
George  W.,  Chairman  of  Isthmian 
Canal  Commission,  218,  221,  222 

Gold,  greed  for,  by  the  Spanish,  22 

Gold  Hill,  1 88,  214 

"Gold  Men,"  157,  158,  160,  167, 
207 

Golden  Castile,  12 

Gonzales,  108;  crosses  the  Isthmus 
in  1521,  109 

Good  Hope,  Cape,  5,  6 

Gorgas,  Colonel  William  C.,  chief 
sanitary  officer,  Panama  Canal 
Zone,  144,  146,  147,  149,  219,  223 

Government  established  in  Prov- 
ince of  Panama,  133 

Grande,  Rio,  50 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  130 

"Grave  of  the  Spaniards,"  36 

Haiti,  7 

Healthful  Panama,  155 

Herons,  58 

Highway  robbers,  4 

Honduras,  Cape,  9 

Hospitals  at  Panama  City,  119,  146 

Humming-birds,  58 

Incas  of  Peru,  descendants  of,  20 

India,  5 

Indians,  7,  10;  San  Bias,  69,  70,  72 


Insects,  noxious,  101 

Isthmian   Canal   Commission,    132, 

J36>  J37»  X44,  156,  160,  162,  166, 

171,    172,    175,    176,    187,    218; 

members  of ,  219,  220,  221 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  shape  of,  42; 

location  of,  42;  temperature  of, 

42;   seasons  at,   42;  rainfalls  in, 

44,  45;  traffic  across,  45 
Isthmus    of    Suez,    116',    117,    118, 

119,  120,  127 
Italian  laborers,  166 


Jackson,  Andrew,  130 
Jaguar,  59,  60 
Jamaica,  Island  of,  34 
Japan,  6 

King  Charles  II,  34 
King  Ferdinand,  9,  12 
King  John  II,  5,  6,  7 


La  Boca,  194 

Laborers,  scarcity  of,  103,  160; 
number  of,  156;  wages  and  care 
of,  157,  160 

Lake  Huron,  180 

Lake  Miraflores,  190 

Lake  Nicaragua,  109 

Lake  Superior,  180 

Lock  canal,  177,  180,  181,  182,  183, 
184,  185,  190,  192,  193;  diagram 
of,  192 

Locomotive,  first  across  the  Isth- 
mus, 106 

Locomotives,  175,  176 

Lottery  at  Panama,  87,  88,  89 

Lusitan-ia,  178 


234 


INDEX 


Magellan,  Strait  of,  228 

Mahogany  trees,  52 

Malaria,  150,  152,  154 

Mangoes,  57 

Manzanillo  Lighthouse,  45,  46 

Marco  Polo,  4 

Markets  of  Panama,  86 

Mediterranean  Sea,  3,  4 

Mindi,  216 

Miraflores,  188;  lake,  190 

Money,    Colombian,     133;    in    the 

Canal  Zone,  135,  160 
Monkeys  of  Panama,  61 
Morgan,  Henry,  prince  of  pirates, 

28;  his  exploits  at  Panama,  28; 

82,  105;  knighted  by  Charles  II, 

34,  109;  destroys  Panama,  no 
Mosquito  brigades,  153 
Mosquitoes,  70,  101,  142,  151,  153, 

154;  cost  of  extermination,  155 

Native  huts  of  Panama,  76 
Natives,  of  Panama,    70,    71,    103; 

climbing  for  cocoanuts,  51 
Negroes  as  workers,  162,  176 
Nelson,  Captain,  British  naval 

hero,  112;  monument,  1 1 1 
Nicaragua   canal,    130,    131;    lake, 

109,  131 ;  seized  by  Spaniards,  19 
Nicuesa,  12;  misfortunes  of,  15,  16 
N  ombre  de  Dios,  15 

Obaldia,  President  of  the  Republic 

of  Panama,  89 
Oil,  224 
Ojeda,  12,  13 
Oranges,  56 
Oregon,    United    States   battleship, 

128,  129 


Padrarias,  Governor  of  the  Isth- 
mus, 17;  cruelties  of,  18;  builds 
road  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  19;  96 

Palm  trees,  52 

Panama  Canal,  119,  120,  193,  194- 

222 

Panama  hats,  84,  85 

Panama,  Isthmus  of,  10;  the  old 
city  of ,  3 1 ;  walls  of  new  city  of, 
34;  fall  of  the  city  of,  35;  site  of 
new  city  of,  35;  department  of 
Colombia,  36 ;  Republic  of,  36,  43 ; 
modern,  41 ;  size  of,  41 ;  city  of, 
48 ;  population  of  Republic  of,  48 ; 
white  inhabitants  of,  70 ;  Gulf  of, 
78;  city  of,  78-89;  growth  of,  224 

Panama  monkeys,  61 

Panama  railroad,  99-106 

Papayas,  56,  57 

Parasites,  150 

Parrots,  58 

Paterson,  William,  no 

Paying  the  laborers,  208,  209 

Pearl  Islands,  19,  78 

Pedro  Miguel,  town  of,  132;  locks 
at,  190 

Pelicans,  58 

Peru,  20,21;  conquered  by  the  Span- 
ish, 22  ;  enormous  wealth  of,  22 

Peso,  Spanish  coin,  133 

Pineapples,  56 

Pirates,  4;  Spanish  commerce 
ruined  by,  28;  battle  with,  by 
the  Spaniards,  31;  109 

Pizarro,  Francisco,  13,  19,  20 

Plague,  150 

Plantains,  77 

Plaza,  Independence,  in  Panama 
city,  80,  81,  87 


INDEX 


235 


Policemen,  134 

Porto  Bello,  harbor  of,  10,  n,  19, 

22,  28,  29 
Portugal,  9 
Portuguese  ships,  5 
Postage  stamps  in  Panama,  135 
Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  5 

Raikoad    travel    in    Panama,    cost 

of>  93 

Rainfall,  44,  45 
"Rat  Brigade,"  151 
Rats  on  ships,  150 
Recreation  of  the  workers,  160,  161 
Reservoirs,  148 
Rice,  77 
Road-building  on  the  Isthmus,  96, 

97 
Roadways  across  Central  America, 

93 
Roosevelt,     Theodore,     130,     131, 

132,  193,  218 

Route  of  canal  and  railroad,  191 
Royal  palm  trees,  52,  155 

Saint  Augustin,  tower  of,  32,  33,  34 
St.   Marys  Falls  ship  canal,   Sault 

Ste.   Marie,   Michigan,    180,    183, 

184 

San  Bias  Indians,  65 
San  Francisco,  227 
San  Juan  river,  109 
San  Lorenzo,  Fort,  capture  of,  29 
San  Miguel,  Gulf  of,  72 
San  Sebastian,  13 
Santa  Maria,  town  in  Panama,  15, 

16,  17 

Santo  Domingo,  13 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  180 
Scotch  colony  in  Darien,  no 


Scott,  Lewis,  pirate,  28 

Sea-level  canal,  177,  178,  179,  186, 

187,  189,  190,  192,  193 
Seasons,  42,  44,  46 
Sea-wall,  city  of  Panama,  99 
Sewers,  148 

Sharp,  Captain,  pirate,  28 
Ship  canals,  at  Panama,   113-116; 

at  Suez,  117,  n 8,  127;  at  Cron- 

stadt,  178;  at  Corinth,  178,  179, 

181,  182,  185 

Shonts,  Theodore  P.,  162,  221 
Sierra  Leone,  5 
"Silver  Men,"  160,  166,  167 
Snakes,  59 
Soil,  224 
Song    birds,     absence    of,     in    the 

tropics,  58 

South  America,  west  coast  of,  22 
Spain,  7;  her  riches  and  power,  24; 

effect  of  her  conquests,   2  7 ;  end 

of  her  power  in  the  New  World, 

35 

Spaniards,  greed  for  gold,  1 6 ;  de- 
feated by  pirates,  3 1 ;  attempts 
of,  to  build  canal,  109 

Spanish  laborers,  165 

Steam  shovels,  198-204 

Stegomyia,  150,  153 

Stevens,  John  F.,  221 

Storehouses,  173 

Strain,  Lieutenant,  U.  S.  Navy,  72, 

74 
Streets  of  Panama,  76,  78,  79,  140, 

142,  143;  of  Colon,  142-149 
Suez,  Isthmus  of,  116-120,  125 
Suez  ship  canal,  178,  189,  224,  225 
Supplies    for    canal    laborers,    168, 

169 
Swamps,  near  Colon,  48 


236 


INDEX 


Taboga,  island  of,  56,  78 

Taft,  William  H.,  132,  193,  213,  218 

Tapir,  65,  66 

Tawney,    James   A.,    chairman    of 

committee     on     appropriations, 

217 

Tehuantepec  Bay,  97 
Temperature,  42,  44 
Tides,  83 

Totten,  Colonel  G.  M.,  101,  105 
Tower  of  Saint  Augustin,  32,  33,  34 
Tropical  fruits,  54,  55;  vegetation, 

50,  58;  diseases,  105,  119,  140 
Turks,  4 
Tuyra,  Rio,  50 

United  States  and  Panama,  128 
United  States  battleship  in  harbor 
of  Colon,  44 

Vasco  da  Gama,  9 

Vegetation,    luxuriant    growth    of, 

So,  58 

Venice,  merchants  in,  4 
Vultures,  58 


Walker,  John  G.,  rear-admiral,  219 

Wallace,  John  F.,  engineer,  219,  221 

Warrees,  60,  6 1 

Washington,  George,  36 

Waste  and  extravagance  in  build- 
ing French  Canal,  120 

Water  lizard  of  Panama,  66 

Water  supply  in  the  Canal  Zone, 
148,  150 

Waterways  across  Central  America, 
108 

West  India  Islands,  7,  9 

Wild  hog,  60 

Women  of  Panama,  77 

Working  force  for  building  canal, 
156,  218 


Yams,  77 

Yellow  fever,  70,  119,  138,  142, 
150,  151,  152,  154 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, 1 60 

Yucatan,  9 

Yucca,  77 


